Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Wanna extend a warm welcome to all who are here this evening, particularly those of you who may be visiting with us this evening.

We are grateful for your presence and it is our prayer and hope that as we worship together this evening, as we've already begun, that it will be encouraging to you that you'll be aided in your service to God.

In 1983 our eldest son, David was born, he was born in the early hours just shortly after midnight.

And we went to the Jewish Hospital there in Cincinnati where he was born, where incidentally our other son, Jonathan was born as well.

And after he was born, few hours later, David and Debbie stayed in the hospital, but I went home and I remember so clearly walking through the house in the early morning hours of that day thinking to myself, wow.

Now I'm responsible for two lives.

Of course, I've been responsible for both of those lives for some time.

But the birth of David really brought it home to me, the responsibility that I had both as a husband and now a father to this newborn child.

Two years later, Jonathan was born and I thought, yeah, just another kid.

The gecko lizard is a really cute insurance icon.

You know, gecko is, uh, representing an insurance company, but gecko lizards are bad parents.

They lay their eggs and the female goes off and leaves those eggs.

And even when the young are born, there's no care for the young.

In fact, adult geckos will sometimes cannibalize their own young.

Now, hopefully, as human parents, we have a higher level of parenting than the gecko lizard, we of course, want to provide for our Children.

We want to protect them in every way possible.

We want to try to ensure that they have everything that they need.

But unfortunately, some parents don't seem to understand what their Children really need or at least not what they need the most.

And so this evening, I want to talk about seven things that parents or that we as those related to Children that we can give to our Children.

What is it that Children really need to prosper as adults?

You, you're probably aware that a lot of adults, a lot of parents will shower their Children with all kinds of physical things.

They take them on the nicest vacations and they wear the latest styles of clothes and perhaps have the latest electronic devices as they get older.

Even young Children sometimes have electronic devices that those of my generation would never have imagined as Children.

Of course, Children are happy to have the latest of everything and to have plenty of these things.

And I'm not suggesting that that's necessarily a bad thing to provide nice things for our kids.

I don't believe that, but I do believe that when parents focus primarily on those physical things, things that will obviously make their Children happy when you give gifts to your Children and you provide them with all kinds of toys, they love that, but that's not really the most important thing to provide for them.

In fact, even though this physical focus requires uh substantial financial assets, sometimes if you're gonna go to various places for vacations, the fact of the matter is it's easier to buy things than it is to mold the character of a young person.

The Bible tells us that parents are stewards over Children.

Interesting fact.

Did you know that the word Stewart originally comes from the word sty ward.

A Stewart was originally one who kept the sty, the pig sty.

Now some of you are saying, yeah, I could see how parents could be stewards of Children because sometimes children's rooms resemble pig sty.

But the Bible says that Children are a heritage of the Lord, that they are like an inheritance that God has given us and we are to take care of them.

We're stewards over these uh new lives, our Children in Ephesians, the six chapter and verse four, the Apostle Paul told us something about what parents need to be doing in terms of their stewardship with Children.

Fathers do not provoke your Children to anger, but by contrast, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Well, what's involved in the discipline and instruction of the Lord?

What is it that parents need to teach their Children?

What character traits do parents need to encourage in their Children?

We have a number of young married couples in this congregation who are, I'm assuming probably in a few years and maybe even earlier than that are going to start their family and they're going to be making these kinds of decisions.

They're going to be answering these questions.

What do we need to teach our Children?

What do we need to encourage?

What do we need to discourage in these young lives?

And there are a number of other families who are a little farther along in that process.

Your Children are already here and growing and maybe even getting into the teenage years.

And if so, if they're in the teenage years, you need to understand that your time with them, the time that's available for you to mold their characters to, to try to influence them so that they can become adults that are prospering and able to function well in our society and specifically to serve God, your time is limited, very limited.

And then of course, there several of us who've already seen our Children leave the nest and now we have grandchildren.

And as much as possible, we would like to be involved in the lives of our grandchildren.

And so for all of these groups and including you guys who are still looking for wives, this information is important so that you can understand what your responsibilities are as stewards of your Children.

Well, one way to answer those questions, what do parents need to teach their Children?

What do we need to encourage in our Children?

One way to define that training is to determine what the character of a faithful Christian looks like.

Is that not really the sum total of what we're trying to do with our Children is that we're trying to teach them to love God and to serve him to glorify God with their lives.

And so I want to say to you, I want to talk to you about seven things that parents need to give should give their Children.

This may not be, I suspect strongly that it's not an all inclusive list or a comprehensive list.

But I think these are all important things and in many cases, fundamental things that we need to be teaching our Children.

And the first one I would suggest is respect for authority.

One wit made this comment.

He said the thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their Children.

Wait a second.

I thought Children were supposed to obey their parents.

That's what the Bible says.

Children obey your parents in the Lord.

For this is right.

Ephesians six and verse one, I'm not sure that Children naturally respect the authority of their parents.

They're going to try to do things and go ways and, and act in ways that parents don't want.

And parents are going to have to exert their authority as those who have been entrusted with these lives.

Our Children, we need to teach Children respect for authority.

You know, it's interesting that throughout life, we will sustain relationships in which there's an authority that we need to submit to.

Whether we're talking about the home to begin with or whether we're talking about school where teachers are in control of the students or whether we're talking about government where there are laws that are enforced by the governing authorities or whether we're talking about God and his supreme authority over us.

But all of that, all of that our relationship to authority, it begins in the home.

That's where Children first experience authority, respect for authority in the home prepares Children to respect authority in other areas.

Is it any wonder sometimes that Children act out at school?

They haven't been taught to respect the authority of others who are in charge?

They don't respect the authority sometimes of their parents.

And is it any surprise that sometimes young people grow up?

They don't respect the authority of God.

They go off and do their own thing.

Children who have trouble with authority are ill prepared to be faithful Christians.

Did you hear when I said, Children who struggle, who have trouble with authority are ill prepared to be faithful Christians.

You can't be a faithful Christian without respecting the authority of the Lord.

Well, how early should we start with that?

About the time that that child comes into your home from the hospital or in whatever way, adoption as early as possible, even very young infants can understand that there are things that are encouraged and things that are discouraged and we don't have any trouble with that. Right?

When we're talking about electrical outlets, we won't allow our Children to do certain things.

We enforce our authority for the good of the child.

And may I suggest to you that parents who teach their Children respect for authority, that's not self serving, that's for the child's own good, not just protecting them from physical danger when they're very young as authoritarian parents, we make sure they don't go into danger.

But so that later on in life, they don't suffer the consequences of hitting their head against the wall of authority in various relationships.

Oh, and by the way, Romans 13 1 talks about that.

Well, here's the second thing that I would suggest we need to give our Children and that is a biblical moral foundation, including in that personal integrity.

I'm gonna talk about that almost as a separate thing, but we can begin to teach our Children biblical morality even very young.

In fact, I would suggest to you that the concept of modesty, modesty needs to be taught at an early age.

Over the years.

I have known a number of mothers who thought it was cute to dress their young girls in clothes that barely covered their undergarments and people think, oh, well, they're just little girls.

They're little girls who grow up to be big girls.

And if we're not instilling in them, the concept of modesty when they're young, by the time they hit the teenage years, good luck with that because they've already formulated their perspective about such things as purity and modesty.

It's much easier to teach modesty at an early age than to try to change those habits later.

We need to be teaching our Children in this biblically moral foundation to be careful in their speech.

Jesus had some sobering things in Matthew chapter 12 in verses 36 and 343.

He says, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.

Let me ask you a question in the course of your lifetime.

How many careless words have you spoken?

How many things have you said without really thinking about the consequence of it or perhaps whether it was acceptable or unacceptable?

I dare say that probably most of us have done that lots of times we talk a lot and sometimes we don't think about what we're saying how it might reflect on us or how, whether it would be acceptable to God or not, but we can teach our Children to be careful about the things that they say.

I applaud those parents who tell their Children that is not acceptable in our home.

We don't talk that way to each other.

I got to tell you just a quick illustration of that.

It just hit me this evening.

Uh Graham and Vivie were riding back to services with us.

They spent the afternoon with Papa and Didi.

And so Debbie got into the car and she was uh burdened with eggs and drink and different things.

And I said, you know, I should have helped you with that and she said you sure should have.

And I said, shut up, you whiner.

And from the back seat, what I heard is mama doesn't let us say that at home.

I said wher no, the other thing, of course, I was kidding.

I was kidding.

Ok. I don't tell Debbie to shut up.

But, but it just, it hit me that they're being taught.

There are certain things you just, it's not appropriate to say those to other people.

And so we can teach our Children to be careful of their speech the way that they talk with others, we need to teach them to avoid profanity.

Have you ever had this experience?

Your child comes home from school and they use a word or words that you know, you never taught them because that language doesn't get used in your home.

But they heard it at school and they're repeating it because it's the way the other kids talk happened to anybody happened to my parents.

I was the one came home from school and I said something.

Where did you hear that?

Well, obviously not in my home, but I was repeating what somebody else had said, didn't even understand the significance of it at the time.

Although I was educated about that.

Colossians three and verse eight says, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

We can teach our Children at a very early age to be careful what they say and to avoid gutter language.

I don't know about you.

But it seems to me that our society that the level of appropriateness has dropped to where now even young kids are using language that adults used to not use in public.

There's been kind of a coarsening of our public dialogue and that just suggests that parents are going to have a bigger job to teach their Children about what kind of language is appropriate.

Sometimes parents will laugh at the cute little stories that uh young people tell.

Well, it's not really true but the child embellishes things.

The problem with that is that those cute little stories of early youth graduate into big ugly lies that hurt and destroy the Bible tells us that verbal dishonesty is condemned in Ephesians. Four.

Paul said the new man puts away falsehood and each one of us needs to speak truth with his neighbor for we're members one of another.

Now, I believe Paul is talking to Christians about the way they treat one another.

But Children learn that in the home.

In fact, I would suggest to you that one of the most important lessons that parents can teach their Children is you always tell the truth.

I hasten to point out young people that doesn't mean you have to say everything you think.

But whatever you say needs to be true.

Honesty, Children need to be taught about honesty.

They need to be taught that one lie, often begets another lie.

You end up telling a lie to protect yourself and then you have to tell another lie to cover that lie.

And then perhaps another lie and sometimes lives are destroyed by the secrets that people are covering up with their lies.

Children need to be taught that a known liar isn't trusted even when he or she tells the truth.

Well, I can't believe you don't believe me.

Well, you lied to me yesterday.

So now today I wonder, are you telling me the truth?

Now, I would say to parents that you want to teach your Children to be an open book when they're young because as they grow older, it will be more difficult to know what the truth is if they choose not to share it with you, you understand what I'm saying?

That as Children get older and as they begin to kind of stretch their, their wings in preparation for leaving the home, they're going to be more and more independent.

You're not going to have the same kind of supervision that you had when they were very young when you could perhaps, uh, you know, search out the lies because you're with them all the time.

But the time will come when Children will be out and they can lie about what they're doing in other places and you may not have any way of knowing.

Um but Children need to be taught that you always tell the truth.

And that way as they get older, their lives are an open book to their parents.

The Bible says Paul, writing to Timothy that young people need to flee youthful lusts fornication.

He writes to the Corinthians is a sin against one's own body.

It is unfortunate that we have to talk with our young people at younger ages now about things that used to be topics for adults or at least those who were old enough to be married.

But we live in an increasingly open and sensual sexualized society and please understand that your Children are going to learn about these things.

And if you're not teaching them, they will learn about it from people who are not going to share your moral values.

In fact, unfortunately, sometimes those kinds of things are mandated in public schools and Children are being taught things that really are inappropriate for their age, if ever appropriate impurity and sensuality.

Two things that are described in Galatians five verses 19 through 21 as works of the flesh.

Those words describe perfectly pornography.

Pornography is impurity and sensuality.

And we live in a digital society where virtually any device that has access to the internet becomes a conduit for pornography.

And parents who don't teach their Children that that's something you need to leave alone, that it's unhealthy, it's sinful, it's wicked.

They're setting their Children up to explore things that they will struggle with perhaps for the rest of their lives, teach your Children, give them a biblical moral foundation, teach them the sinfulness and the danger of illicit drugs and you need to start young because the devil does.

Drugs are in some of the earliest schools.

Now, it's incredible.

The statistics that you can read about that parents are working against culture.

Our culture has become more and more opposed to biblical morality.

And so we need to understand as parents that we've got to be aggressive in opposing some of the things that our Children will be exposed to.

And the reason we teach them, this is because Christians, Christians must be Holy Paul said or excuse me, Peter said in First Peter 115, he quotes from the Old Testament be holy for, I am holy.

If we're trying to educate our Children, we're trying to train them to be the kind of people who will respond to the gospel and who will serve God with all of their heart, soul and mind.

And we need to teach them about holiness, about purity.

We need to teach our Children to have a sense of responsibility.

Some parents offer excuses for any failure or misbehavior of their Children.

And if you don't believe that, talk to a teacher in a public school and they will tell you how often it is that the parents come in to talk to the teacher blazing.

Why my little Johnny, he never does anything wrong.

Well, little Johnny was in the wrong but parents will defend their Children regardless of what uh what they've done.

I, I hate that Jonathan's here this evening because I'm gonna use my kids as illustrations.

But, you know, occasionally our Children were sometimes homeschooled, particularly during the time we're in Brazil and then sometimes in the public schools and occasionally one or the other would come home and say, you know, they were complaining about what had happened at school today and the teacher she did and I, you know, I would sometimes say, well, we'll handle that.

I'll go talk to the teacher.

Oh, no, no, don't do that.

Dad don't, don't go to the school.

Oh, ok.

So the suspicion, the suspicion sometimes was that maybe not all the details had come out in the story from one side of the equation.

We need to be careful about defending our Children even when they are in danger of misbehavior.

Children quickly learn to make excuses if we excuse them for their misbehavior, why it's so and so's fault or it wasn't my fault.

Somebody else did blame the other kids.

Parents need to teach their Children to accept responsibility for their actions.

And again, if we can't do that, if we don't learn to do that in our own lives, then we will not be able to be faithful Christians because faithful Christians have to understand the law of cause and effect actions have consequences, fundamental truth.

But we are dealing with lots of people in the world who believe that they can act with impunity.

There are no consequences to what they do.

We need to teach our Children that when you make choices and when you behave in a certain way, there are consequences to that.

You know, sometimes that's difficult.

It's difficult because we want to protect our Children.

We really don't want them to hurt or to feel bad, but we are hurting our Children.

If we don't teach them that they have to accept responsibility for their actions, we need to give our Children a sense of gratitude.

How many times have you heard a parent say to a small child?

Did you say thank you for that gift?

Did you say Thank you.

Thank you for what somebody did.

I've heard that all my life and I think that's a good thing.

I think parents are, are, are saying, reminding Children you need to be grateful for this particular thing.

But I'm suggesting that thankfulness ought to be the general tenor of our lives, not just thankful on some occasion where something good has happened to me or somebody has given me some sort of gift, but thankfulness ought to permeate our lives.

And there are thousands of ways that parents can teach Children about thankfulness.

Frankly, the general tenor of a child's life will reflect what they've seen in the home.

And so as parents, we need to make sure that Children understand that we are thankful.

It's surprising to me how many times the Bible talks about thankfulness.

I'm just going to share a few with you first Thessalonians five verses 16 through 18, rejoice.

Always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances. Wow.

Are there some circumstances where we're not really inclined to be thankful, things have happened to us and and we're maybe upset about them or that they're not going to be for our, our good.

We, we think hard to be thankful in times like that, be give thanks in all circumstances.

I I thought Tim was going to preach my lesson this morning.

He made some good comments about Colossians three.

So let me just say amen to what Tim said and note that in verses 15 through 17.

How many times thanks or giving thanks is, is found in those verses and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Just straight statement.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another.

And all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, even as we sing, it is with thankfulness in our hearts and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, the father through him.

I think thankfulness ought to be the general tenor of our lives.

The parallel passage in Ephesians five and verse 20. Giving.

Thanks always and for everything to God, the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As parents.

Are we teaching our Children that as grandparents are we teaching our Children that we need to be thankful all the time.

In Philippians.

The fourth chapter, the apostle Paul again says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known to God.

The word prayer is generic.

It could involve uh praise, it could involve supplication or request.

But the word supplication speaks of uh asking either on behalf of yourself or maybe even more specifically on behalf of somebody else.

Prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.

I'm reminded how often we ask, please Lord do this, please do that.

Do we give thanks for what the Lord has done for us.

I think that's important.

Well, another thing we need to give our Children is a good work ethic.

Someone says, well, that doesn't seem real biblical.

I mean, work ethic.

The scriptures teach us to work in first Thessalonians four Paul says in verse 11 and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

In second Thessalonians three, there apparently was some sort of problem at Thessalonica with some who were unwilling to work.

And so Paul says, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat for.

We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies, they're meddling in other people's affairs.

Now, such persons, we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Unfortunately, sometimes the influence of affluence is laziness and even a sense of entitlement.

We can give so much to our Children.

We can provide so much for them that they really don't have to work for that.

In some cases, we can create in them, the sense that they deserve everything that they want and people should give it to them and I'll tell you we're setting our Children up for a lot of pain and suffering.

If we do that, it's better to teach Children to work than to try to leave them enough.

I can't tell you how many times I've read stories about the parent who maybe at the neglect of his Children, he has been wildly successful in business.

He's created an empire, a great sum of, of wealth, assets, of a great nature and leaves it to his Children and they fritter away in their youth long before they ever get to the age of retirement because they don't appreciate what they've been given.

They didn't have to work for it.

And so they don't understand how to use money.

Proverbs chapter 20 verses 30 to 34 talks about someone observing the field of the slugger.

He's going to have problems.

We need to teach our Children to work.

I don't want to say I don't want to generalize about any group of people, but it does seem to me that it's harder to find people who are willing to work and to work hard and to persevere in tasks until they finish them.

Is it important to teach our Children to finish, to persevere?

Uh I just preached a lesson recently about the need for endurance in Christians.

We can't just start this journey of a Christian's life.

We have to finish that.

We have to finish successfully.

The child who grows up never finishing anything difficult is destined for a hard life.

Christianity demands, persistence, secular jobs, demand, persistence, marriage demands persistence.

If our Children grow up believing that as soon as something gets difficult, forget that I'm moving on to the next thing.

Those are people who are going to have hard lives, unsuccessful lives as adults teach your Children to work and your Children will not appreciate that.

May I just say that your Children are going to think that they're in bondage?

My mom is a slave driver.

My dad is a master of slaves.

I remember thinking when I was a kid now, I'm sorry, dad's here.

I remember thinking when I was a kid, will it ever end?

There was always something to do.

There was always work.

It was in the gardens, it was lawn mowing, it was other things.

Of course, as a child, I wanted to have fun.

I wanted to play with friends.

I wanted to do things other than working.

And what I didn't understand is that I was being taught a very important lesson and that is that there are things you have to do.

You have to, as I tell the boys, sometimes you have to take care of business.

So we need to teach our Children to work and they won't like it.

They'll perhaps think that it's unfair, but it's for their good.

We need to teach our Children to be unselfish and that's a very broad kind of concept.

Because it has so many different applications.

Uh, I'm talking about an unselfish concern for others.

All of us are born selfish.

Would you agree with that statement?

I think it's true.

Any of you as a child, you know, come home from the hospital or you're just a few days old and you're hungry.

And you said to your mom, I really would like to eat right now.

But whenever it's convenient for you or my diaper is dirty and needs to be changed.

But I know you're busy.

I know you've had a hard day.

I'll just wait until it's convenient for you.

When a baby is unhappy you're gonna know about it.

Isn't that right?

Jared?

And all of us have experienced that Children are born selfish in the sense that they're consumed with their own needs.

They're not particularly concerned about whether it's convenient for you or not as a parent or somebody else who's caring for the child.

But hopefully, as we mature, we learn to become more unselfish, to think more about the needs of others.

As Paul would say, putting others before ourselves, making them more important than ourselves.

He says in Philippians, the second chapter in Colossians three, I want you to notice the words here and how many of them relate to this idea of unselfishness.

This is Colossians three verse 12 put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts that says something about the way that we treat others kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if anyone had, if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

We could go on and on about selfishness, putting ourselves ahead of others.

But we need to be teaching our Children to think about others first.

Because selfishness is a destroyer of virtually any human relationship.

It will cause all kinds of problems in the family.

It will cause problems at school.

It will cause problems at work.

It will cause problems in the life of someone who's trying to be a Christian.

Selfishness destroys that relationship.

We need to teach our Children unselfishness.

And then finally, the seventh thing, we need to teach our Children to give them an understanding of the marital roles.

Now someone says, yeah, but my child is only four or five years old.

What, what can they understand about, you know, marital roles, husbands and wives.

Should we begin teaching them that that age, that the husband is to love his wife and the wife is to submit to her husband that, that they're to take care of each other, to love each other.

Sure, we can.

Since the majority of people are going to eventually marry, parents need to teach their Children what kind of mate to look for and what kind of make to be young people need to be looking as they're seeking some sort of a lifetime partner.

They need to be looking at the spiritual character of people.

Does this person that I'm interested in?

Do they have any understanding of what marriage is?

Like?

What it's, how it's supposed to operate?

And as we teach our Children, hopefully we're teaching them to be good husbands and good wives.

But unfortunately, what do young people?

A lot of times look at, well, who's the prettiest, who is the most handsome?

Fortunately for me, Debbie didn't look at that, but we sometimes look at appearance and the way someone is dressed or even the things that they have.

But those are not necessarily indicators of good mates.

Young people need to look at the spiritual qualifications of those with whom they associate and particularly if they're thinking of marrying.

I'll tell you something about this.

You will be teaching your Children about marriage, whether intentionally or not, they're going to learn about husbands and wives from the way their fathers and mothers behave in their home.

Hopefully, they're going to see good examples.

Hopefully they're going to be see templates of the way scripture says husbands and wives ought to behave.

But even if parents don't intentionally teach their Children about marriage, the behavior of parents usually influences the Children.

I can't tell you how many times my sisters have said, you know, you're just like dad.

Well, you're influenced by your parents and you learn about marriage, you learn about parenting from your parents and your family.

In so many cases, we need to ask the questions.

Are fathers teaching their sons that a husband is courteous to his wife, gentle and protecting.

Does he show a willingness to sacrifice for his family?

Are mothers teaching their daughters how to manage a home, uh how to love and submit to their husbands?

Or does the mother run the husband down or does she build him up in front of the Children?

One thing I always appreciated about Debbie when the Children were at home and even now is she didn't criticize me in front of the Children and there was plenty to criticize and she doesn't run me down in front of other people, even though she could tell things that probably wouldn't be very flattering.

I'm imperfect just like anybody else.

She protects me.

Do, do your Children see that in their mother?

Do they see that in their father that he will not criticize her in public?

But he protects her, her reputation.

Parents need to indeed provide physical necessities for their Children?

Please understand.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for us to provide nice things for our Children.

We tried to do that with our Children, particularly David.

But the seven things that I've mentioned tonight, I think are extremely important for Children who are going to be adequately prepared for adulthood, respect for authority, having a biblically moral foundation, sense of responsibility, a sense of gratitude.

Teaching them to have a work ethic that will prosper them and to persevere in their task, unselfishness and to help them understand what husbands and wives, how they should behave and how to be good spouses.

Now, I'll tell you something, you can give your Children a lot of things and not spend much time with them.

In fact, sometimes what happens is parents are so determined to provide all kinds of good things for their Children that the Children raise themselves while the parents are out making money to buy things for the kids.

When what the kids really need the parents.

And if you're going to give these seven things to your Children, the first thing you're gonna have to give them is yourself because it takes time to teach Children these things.

It takes intention, it takes planning to give these lessons to make these lessons for your Children.

Well, when should you start?

Well, Jared Davis is already on his third lesson.

Start right away.

Some of these principles you can start with with infants, practically, they can understand things.

I'm afraid that some parents assume that somewhere in the late teenage years, there's this magical moment when suddenly all of it clicks or at least that's the point at which I should try to deal with these things.

At that point, it's too late in the ball game often for you really to make a difference in the Children.

They've already, they've already developed their opinions, their perceptions of things.

You're too late.

I'm not saying you shouldn't try to play, catch up, but that's what you're doing.

You're playing catch up.

You need to start with Walker to start with.

I said, Jared didn't I, Jude, that's what I meant.

Jude's on his third lesson.

And other Children, you start as early as possible.

We're imperfect parents.

Debbie and I, well, Debbie made some mistakes as we are raising David and Jonathan.

We're imperfect parents.

But fortunately, we have a perfect parent, our creator.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

He knows what we really need.

It's not things he gives us what we really need and that's his graces.

The grace that brings forgiveness is only available through Jesus Christ.

The question is, are you in Christ?

Have you accepted the offer of forgiveness that God makes through the gospel?

And if we can assist you this evening, to respond to your creator, who wants to be your heavenly father and to give you everything that is important for you to enjoy eternal life with him.

If we can assist you in doing that, we want to encourage you to make that known, come to the front.

We will assist you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

From Matthew chapter 213 starting in verse 214 Matthew 213 verse 218 to 234.

Then Jesus went to, went with them to a place called gem.

And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray and taking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.

He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

He said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here and watch with me and going a little further.

He fell on his face and prayed, saying my father, if it is be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.

And he said to Peter.

So could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation?

The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak again.

For the second time, he went away and prayed my father.

If this cannot pass, unless I drink it, your will be done.

And he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time saying the same words again, they came to the disciples and said to them sleep and take your rest.

Later on.

See, the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners rise.

Let us be going.

See, my betrayer is at hand.

I enjoy watching wildlife documentaries.

I particularly like seeing some of the big animals of Africa.

The big five, which incidentally doesn't include the lion for some odd reason, but I enjoy watching those different animals and the way they behave some interesting patterns emerge.

The tiger which is not necessarily endemic to Africa is a solitary hunter.

The tiger is an ambush hunter.

In fact, some individuals in areas where the tiger is found will sometimes as they're out into the, the woods or in the fields or whatever, they'll, they'll wear a mask that shows eyes on the back of their head because a tiger doesn't want to attack when he's being seen.

And so that's their defense.

Of course, in Africa, the lion, the king of beasts is a stock hunter.

He blends in with the vegetation.

This is a she on the screen.

Lioness blends in with the vegetation and moves slowly and quietly and you can see the crouch in the picture on the screen getting ever closer until finally, the lion makes a short run and pounces and often suffocates its victim by grasping it by the neck and holding it.

With the exception of the very large animals like hippos and elephants and giraffes.

The lion's prey usually avoids being killed by being very watchful and it doesn't hurt to be fast either like the antelope.

You and I are being stalked by a vicious hunter.

The Bible describes him as deceptive and cunning that he uses schemes and wilds in order to capture his prey.

Many people are convinced that he doesn't exist that Satan is just kind of a hobgoblin of the medieval times or ancient times.

But Peter described him with the figure of a lion in first Peter five and verse eight, warning his readers that they needed to be sober minded and watchful.

Your adversary the devil.

He wrote Prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

He's called the Tempter.

He's called the adversary.

He's called the prince or the ruler of this world, but he is on the stock.

He is looking for pray.

And this morning, I want to talk to you about how it is that we can avoid becoming Satan's prey.

The very word was suggests that there must be something of some import or danger if you're using it as a warning word that exist, that would require us to watch after Jesus had observed the Passover with his disciples.

On that last night, they crossed the Kidron Valley and went on to the mount of Olives and Jesus predicted there on the mount of Olives, the desertion of all of his apostles.

He said in acts chapter 235 to 133 that the shepherd would be struck and all the sheep would be scattered.

But Peter proclaimed himself to be different from the rest of the disciples.

Even all if all others would flee or fall away.

Peter said, I will not.

He affirmed his loyalty even to the point of death if I must die with you.

He said, well, the disciples went into the Garden of Gethsemane.

You just saw the picture of the present day garden of olive trees that it is thought to be the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus of course, goes there with his disciples in the night.

It's dark and they're together and soon there will be a gathering of people, a mob from the rulers of the Jews who will come to arrest Jesus.

But before they come, Jesus begins to be sorrowful and to pray.

And he takes the disciples, he separates them into two groups, taking Peter James and John to a section to a place away from the other apostles.

And then he himself goes on so that he can pray in solitude.

And the text tells us that he says to Peter James and John, my soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here and watch with me and going a little farther.

He fell on his face and prayed, saying my father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

But of course, as Phil read just a few moments ago, when Jesus comes back to these three, having prayed by himself, he finds them sleeping and he says to Peter.

So could you not watch with me one hour?

There's something interesting about that verse and it is that the word you there indistinguishable as to number in the English is plural in the Greek.

But we've all done this before.

We've talked to several people, but we took our eyesight and we focused it on one person because what we were saying may have had special import for that person.

And so the text says, Jesus said to Peter, even though he's talking to the others as well, could you not watch with me?

One hour?

It was Peter, of course, who had said that I'll die with you if necessary and yet he is unable to stay awake while the Lord's praying in sorrow, watch and pray.

Jesus said that you may not enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.

The word that's translated watch here, vines says can mean simply to keep awake.

I have many times sat in the deer stand and found myself nodding off and realized my eyes have been closed.

Sometimes I even check my watch to find out how many deer have gone by while I've been sleeping.

That's one meaning of the word.

But Vine also says that the word can mean or refer to in a metaphorical way, spiritual alertness, being awake spiritually.

And I really think although Vine puts this passage with the first definition, keep awake physically, I really think that the second definition is what Jesus has in mind because he ends that statement by saying that you may not enter into temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And so I think the word watch here probably means more than just stay awake, Peter James and John.

I mean it, I think it means remain spiritually alert.

There are some notable differences between the synoptic accounts on this particular time of jesus' life and this last night of the synoptics only Matthew and Mark record the command watch and pray.

Luke uses the word rise, rise and pray, rise, meaning to stand literally in the Greek in chapter 213 and verse 212.

And it is also only Luke's gospel that records that earlier in the evening, Jesus had addressed Simon and said Simon, Simon behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers, not only did Jesus link his instructions to watch and to pray in the struggle against or with the the struggle of avoiding temptation.

But he also mentions his our spiritual enemy to Simon.

Simon Satan wanted to sift you.

He wanted to take control of you, but I've prayed for you.

I want to talk a little bit about that twofold strategy that Jesus suggested to these three disciples, Jesus indicated the participation.

I think in these instructions, the strategy of both man and God in the struggle against temptation and sin man's part is to watch, to stay alert, spiritually alert, but also to pray, the solicitation of divine help.

And we're gonna look at both of those councils separately.

When you think about watching, if it is in fact an indication of the presence of danger, what is it that we should be watching for or what is it that we should be watching?

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter six said that you and I as Christians are engaged in a spiritual battle, there are things going on in our world that we cannot see because of the spiritual nature of the entities that are involved.

The Bible gives us glimpses into that world by suggesting uh that angels did this or did that and that demons possess people in the first century.

There are things going on in our world that we cannot see, they're not uh visible in the physical world and they are involved in a spiritual battle.

Paul said, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

And I believe perhaps included in that list of those with whom we are fighting are individuals humans who are being directed by Satan.

But I believe Paul, when he says for, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood is not indicating that we will not have to have, we will not have opposition by other humans.

But I think he's suggesting that in a not but construction that the greater battle, the larger conflict is against spiritual forces against the one who is behind evil in this world, Satan himself and those who do his bidding or as Paul describes them elsewhere, as his ministers, the nature of the pieces of armor that Paul then goes on to identify, I think also suggests the type of conflict that we're involved in the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace with which our feet are shod shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which Paul identifies as the word of God.

Those are things that are related to spiritual matters.

Paul doesn't describe an armor that is physical, uh like armor that people sometimes have worn in the past and still do in physical combat.

But rather he talks about an armor that is effective or spiritual warfare as he describes these pieces or parts of the armor in just a few minutes.

We're going to be looking in the adult class in the auditorium as we study our way through Second Corinthians.

We'll be looking at chapter 225 verses three through five where Paul notes that his warfare, his battle was not uh according to the flesh, even though he was living in the flesh that is, he was in his physical body.

He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

We're involved in a spiritual battle and in that battle, we are dealing with false arguments, opinions contrary to God's will.

But we need to understand that the real conflict, the real enemy is Satan himself in second Corinthians, the 11th chapter, just the very next chapter, Paul says to the Corinthians.

But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ, the serpent didn't come to Eve and say disobey God, but rather he began to reason with her about what God had said and what God intended and what she could achieve if she would disobey God.

And that's the cunning with which Satan makes his way in this battle to capture prey.

A little bit later on.

Toward the end of that passage in Ephesians six, where Paul is talking about the panoply or the armor of God.

He says in verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end.

Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Now, interestingly enough, the word that's translated, keep alert here is not the same word that's used in Matthew 26 and translated watch.

This is a different word that means literally to be sleepless, to be watchful.

But Vine goes on to say that the word expresses not mere wakefulness, but the watchfulness of those who are intent upon a thing.

Paul says, keep alert, stay focused on this business of prayer, making supplication for all the saints in the scriptures.

There are a lot of exhortations to be watchful.

I'm just going to present a mere handful uh to you this morning in First Corinthians 16 chapter verse 13, as sometimes letter writers do, Paul kind of strings together some uh various exhortations.

And he says in verse 13, be watchful, stay, stand firm in that faith act like men, be strong. Colossians.

The fourth chapter in verse two, Paul says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

I think that's much the same as what he was trying to say in Ephesians six and verse 123.

In Acts the 20th chapter, Paul met with the elders of the church at Ephesus.

He met them at Miletus and Acts 20 gives us Luke's record of their conversation of Paul's address to these elders.

And he says in verse 31 of that chapter, therefore, be alert, having warned him that there are wolves that will arise, that will seek to make prey of the flock, those who are working for Satan.

He says, therefore, be alert.

Remembering that for three years, I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.

The figures of light and darkness are sometimes used to talk about alertness or sleep.

Those things that are associated with light and darkness to the Thessalonians.

Paul would write in first Thessalonians five verse five for you are all Children of light Children of the day.

We are not of the night or nor of the darkness.

So then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober.

You know, it's interesting that we use the word sober with reference to uh alcohol or other things that might uh in uh prejudice our senses.

But the Bible doesn't use this word typically in that literal sense of being sober without alcohol.

It uses it usually in the sense in a metaphorical sense to be free from intoxicants, anything that would cloud my judgment, not necessarily alcohol, emotions can do the same thing.

And so Paul writes keep awake and be sober.

In order to be watchful, you can't have your senses, your reasoning clouded by anything, alcohol or emotions or fear or other things.

I want to talk to you just for a moment about the mechanism of temptation.

Jesus said, watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation.

And James helps us understand that the enemy attacks us through the weakness of the flesh.

In fact, Jesus himself said after he said, watch and pray, he said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

James tells us in chapter one of his epistle, the origin of or the mechanism, maybe I should say of temptation.

Let no one say when he's tempted.

I'm being tempted by God.

James writes for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

And so the mechanism of temptation makes use of the desires of the flesh, Satan and others who worked for Him, they appeal to those things that are sinful, sinful desires that we may uh cherish in our, in our bodies and our minds.

Then when desire, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

And so James says that the mechanism of temptation starts within us with our own desires.

And so it makes sense when Paul says in Romans 13 and verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

That's what happens when we give in to sin.

We sometimes place ourselves in circumstances or situations in which we're going to be.

Uh there's going to be an appeal made to our fleshly desires.

If we give in to that, if we make provision for the flesh by putting ourselves in that circumstance and then giving in to those desires, then as James says, desire is conceived and gives birth to sin.

We need to be cautious about the decisions that we make and the circumstances in which we place ourselves.

It strikes me that sometimes and particularly young people, but even older people, sometimes that sometimes we don't give a lot of thought to the consequences or the possibilities for evil that we introduce into our lives by agreeing to certain circumstances or situations.

Here's a young person headed off to college is the first consideration that there needs to be a local congregation of Christians that that person can worship with and be encouraged by while that person is perhaps away from home, sometimes that's the last thing on people's minds.

And so they put themselves in a situation where frankly, they're not going to get the encouragement of other Christians, which is part of the purpose of our gathering together.

And so their fleshly part starts to take over their lives and they end up yielding to temptation.

Or sometimes young people put themselves in situations, social situations where they know there's going to be behavior and activity, things going on that they can't participate in.

And yet because they want to belong, they want to be a part of a group or some activity, a larger activity.

So they put themselves in the middle of this.

Is it any surprise then that sometimes they end up participating in those things that they know to be wrong.

We can make provision for the flesh that way.

And we need to be careful.

I think that's what Jesus is saying.

Watch, be alert, pay attention to what's going on.

Sometimes we're so immersed in all of the physical things that are going on that we stop thinking about and considering the spiritual consequences of the decisions that we make.

Jesus said, pray, watch and pray.

You know, it's interesting that in the sermon on the mount Jesus gave a model prayer.

I don't know that he intended for us to just repeat that prayer.

But I think he was giving us an idea of the things that we should pray for, the kinds of things we should pray for.

And it's interesting that in Matthew six and verse 13, he said, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Very similar to what he says to Peter and James and John watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation.

We already looked at Ephesians, the six chapter and verse 18, that we are to keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Notice all prayer, praying at all times, I should say with all prayer, with all perseverance, you're getting the impression that prayer is an important part of our defense against temptation.

In second Thessalonians three and verse three, the Apostle Paul again wrote to the Thessalonians, but the Lord is faithful.

He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

Let me ask you a question.

Have you ever struggled with some temptation?

And it just seemed like you, you seem powerless almost to resist it.

You, you know it's wrong and you fall into that, that sin and so you repent you, you're sorry and you make the determination.

I'm not going to do that anymore.

And then you find yourself uh maybe not too long after that, you're, you're involved again in that same sin and that same temptation, could it be that maybe when we seem to have so much difficulty resisting a particular temptation?

It's because we're not praying for divine help when we face a temptation like that, I think Jesus understood the pressures that these disciples, his apostles were going to face on the night that he was arrested.

And even in the successive hours of his trial, et cetera, Jesus had already predicted as we noted earlier, the scattering of the disciples and in particular Peter's fall you will all fall away.

He said because of me this night for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Jesus anticipated that it was going to be difficult for them to stay faithful, not to scatter but Peter of course, said though they all fall away because of you.

I will never fall away.

And Jesus says some sobering things to him.

Truly, I tell you this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

How would you feel if the Lord said that to you after you had just got done saying I'll never fall away.

And Jesus says, yeah, you're going to deny me three times tonight before the night's over.

Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

And so Peter ramps it up.

He gives uh uh an even stronger affirmation of his loyalty to the Lord, which frankly is foolish when the Lord predicts that that's what's going to happen and understand the Lord's looking ahead and seeing history.

But Peter makes that affirmation.

And despite what Jesus said, he ventures into the high priest's courtyard, the disciples did scatter.

But Peter follows along and behind and he wants to see what's gonna happen to Jesus and he finds himself in the actual courtyard of the high priest while Jesus is being interrogated and he's in the middle of the group of people who had come to the garden with weapons and lights and they'd arrested Jesus and bound him and took him back into Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley.

And here comes Peter along behind and now he comes into the priest's courtyard, he's warming his hands at the fire along with the enemies of Jesus in his pride.

And I think his statement in verses 34 and 35 I think illustrate the pride of Peter in his pride.

He apparently thought that he could resist the devil.

Jesus said, watch and pray.

And Peter just blundered right into the midst of temptation and fell away in his fear.

He denied Jesus.

But understand he put himself directly in the path of temptation.

Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation.

That's what Jesus said.

And Peter, it went in one ear and out the other ear apparently because he fell prey to the tempter.

How will it be with us?

Well, we need to stay alert.

Satan's not on vacation.

He didn't retire after the first century.

You may not be able to see him.

You and I can't see the spiritual world around us.

But the Bible tells us there are things going on that Satan is a roaring lion he's seeking whom he may devour.

And that includes you includes me.

We need to stay alert, we need to watch, re realizing the danger that temptation presents.

I would suggest to you that we need to pray not only that we can avoid temptation.

But that if we are tempted, we can understand, we can recognize the path of escape.

The Apostle Paul said in first Corinthians, the 10th chapter verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

That's a promise to Christians.

Paul was writing to Christians and in verse 12, he warned them about arrogance.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

That was Peter's problem.

And sometimes it's our problem.

We think we're so strong spiritually that we can just walk right up to the line of temptation and we'll be fine because of our spiritual strength.

Maybe the length of time that we've been a Christian or the fact that we're an elder or a deacon or a Bible class teacher, how will it be with us?

But we need to stay alert just as the Lord admonished his disciples on that fateful day in the garden of Yosemite.

Satan wants to destroy us.

He's already been condemned.

In fact, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 25 that the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that burns all the time eternally, that's been prepared for Satan and his angels.

But all those who serve him will join him in punishment.

But God has fortunately provided for our redemption from the bondage of sin when we have fallen, pray to temptation.

When we have violated God's law, when we sinned God's provided a way for us to be forgiven of that sin, to be redeemed from the bondage of sin.

The only question that we need to ask ourselves this morning is, are we watching?

Are we praying if we're Christians?

And if you're not a Christian, will you accept God's offer of grace?

Forgiveness this morning?

The path to forgiveness is on the screen.

We've preached it a lot of times the scriptures are there.

If you need to become a Christian this morning, we want to encourage you to do so.

Now while you have time and opportunity and we stand to invite you as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Let's read Hebrews 1019 through 25.

I'll read from the English standard version.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast.

The confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near, I would reiterate what Jim said earlier.

And that is if you're visiting with us, we are so glad that you're here and it is our hope and prayer that the time that we spend together this morning in worship to God and in study of His word that that'll be uplifting to you that you'll be encouraged by that and prompted to more loyal and dedicated service to God.

That's part of our reason for being here is to encourage one another.

And of course, to worship our God with a mighty hand God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.

He afflicted the nation of Israel, the land of Egypt, I should say with plagues and brought his people out of that land and brought them to the mount where he gave them a law covenanted with them as a nation, Jacob's family, they stayed there for about a year.

And during that time, in addition to the giving of the decalogue, the Tabernacle was also built and then the people moved to the southern border of the land of Canaan, the land that had been promised to Abraham that would be possessed by his descendants.

And they're ready to go into the land.

Moses sent 12 spies up into the land.

And for 40 days, they surveyed this promised land.

And when they came back to the people, they gave a report that the land was indeed a rich land, a land of milk and honey.

And they illustrated that by bringing back a cluster of grapes that apparently was so large that it took two men to carry this cluster.

But the 10 spies gave a negative report of this land.

We can't take this land.

The people there are well fortified, the cities are well fortified and the people, there are giants and they discourage the people and the nation of Israel, that generation that came out of Egypt so close to entering this promised land failed to enter and instead wandered in the wilderness while that entire generation died.

And a new generation arose that would later go into the land.

They were so close and yet failed to enter.

The author of Hebrews compares the life of a Christian to a race.

Therefore, he says in chapter 12 and verse one, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us.

I suspect that we are aware that this race is not a sprint, it's not a short quick journey, a quick race, but rather it is a marathon where day after day, year after year, perhaps we will continue to serve our God.

And so the Hebrews writer encourages us to endurance as we run this race.

But unfortunately, we know from both personal experience and from scripture that not every Christian successfully finishes that race, like the Israelites who were denied entrance into the promised land.

Some Christians will fail to enter their inheritance.

It is my hope and prayer that of all of us seated here this morning, that we will not be among that number that fails to reach the finish line.

Successfully and to inherit that glorious reward that the Lord has promised to us this morning.

I wanna talk to you about the need for endurance.

I think that is something that we have to continue to return to as, as Christians to remember the need for us to press on, to keep on keeping on.

And I'm gonna try to do several things this morning.

I want to affirm the possibility of apostasy for a Christian to fall away.

I won't spend a lot of time on that because I suspect we are mutually agreed on that fact.

But I think it's important for us to note that and then perhaps even to suggest some reasons why it is that Christians sometimes quit the race, why they fail to finish successfully.

And I want to finish this study by suggesting how it is that we can endure to the end.

Some things that we need to keep in mind.

You may be aware that there is a belief among many religious people that a genuine Christian cannot be lost that once you're saved, you will be always saved.

There's virtually nothing that you can do in order to be lost.

The sovereignty of God guarantees your salvation.

But the scriptures warn Christians about the danger of apostasy and it seems rather futile to list warnings about something that cannot possibly occur.

And so as we look at just three quick warnings this morning, two from the Book of Hebrews and one in uh second Peter chapter two, I want to emphasize that these are real warnings that God is telling us about a possibility, something that could happen to his chosen people in Hebrews the sixth chapter and verses four through six, the Hebrews writer and incidentally, the book of Hebrews is written to Christians who apparently were in danger of going back to the law of Moses, of falling away from Christ, of leaving the perfect high priest and his sacrifice only to return to that which was inferior in quality.

And so the Hebrew writer several times warns his readers about that danger.

In chapter six, he lists four specific phrases to describe the individuals that he's talking about.

I want you to pay attention to the third phrase in particular because sometimes it's argued that these are simply people who have heard the gospel but really haven't accepted it.

They're not real Christians, otherwise they couldn't fall away.

But I would suggest to you that the only people who share in the Holy Spirit are, in fact genuine Christians.

And yet the Hebrews writer says that those individuals can fall away.

It's difficult to fall away from something that you're not previously with.

It's difficult for you to fall away from a relationship if you did not initially have that relationship.

This passage is talking about Christians and it's very clear that the possibility of them falling away exists.

Well, another warning is in chapter 113, verse 26 to 31.

These are the verses immediately following the reading that Elijah did for us in chapter 10 verses 214 through 210.

And the writer says, for, if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Again, some have argued, well, this is not really talking about genuine Christians.

It's just talking about people who have received the knowledge of the truth.

In other words, they've heard the gospel, they've heard the message of salvation, but they haven't accepted it.

Let's keep reading.

Verse 235 says, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

This is a subtle argument, but the fact of the matter is all those who would set aside the law of Moses were those who were responsible to that law and those were God's chosen people.

And so the writer continues to talk about people who belong to God first.

He talks about those in this new covenant in verses 239 and 210.

But then he uses an illustration from the old law and the nation of Israel.

Again, God's old testament, chosen people.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled under foot, the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged, the spirit of grace.

I want you to pay attention to that phrase profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified.

As far as I know, the only individuals who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ are genuine Christians are those who have been redeemed, who have been saved by the precious blood of Christ.

The final passage that we'll look at this morning is in Second Peter chapter two and Peter warns his readers, he's writing to Christians as was the Hebrews writer and he warns them that there would be false teachers among you.

He says, well, now that's not really definitive because false teachers could come from without and simply be among the people, but not necessarily be Christians themselves.

Let's keep reading, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

Who is it that has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ will.

Paul says in acts chapter 211 verse 113 that God purchased the church with his blood.

We're told in Ephesians 211 that uh Christians are the ones who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

These passages, all three of them clearly are talking about Christians and in each case, it is very manifest obvious that the possibility of falling away exists for Christians.

I didn't want to spend a lot of time on that because I rather suspect that all of us who have gathered here this morning probably accept that fact that it's possible for us to be lost.

And so what I would like to do is spend the rest of our time this morning together in this study by talking about why it is that sometimes Christians don't finish and what we can do to make sure that we do finish successfully.

There are probably some few Christians who abruptly leave the Lord and it may be that it's because of some traumatic event in their life, something that is very difficult to deal with.

But I suspect that the greater danger is that faithful Christians slowly become weaker and weaker and they fall away over a period of time.

By the time somebody's apostasy has become obvious, they no longer associate themselves with the saints with other Christians in many cases.

That's just the end of a journey that started sometime earlier.

I'm saying that often this process of falling away takes some time.

I'm gonna suggest three reasons that I think Christians fail to finish the race successfully.

And the first one is just simply spiritual fatigue.

As I said before, the race of the Christian is not really a sprint.

I understand that sometimes people obey the gospel late in life, perhaps in their older age.

And so they're not Christians for a long time before they go on to their reward.

But then there are many others who obey the gospel in their youth in their early adulthood perhaps.

And so they may live for decades.

As Christians, the Christian's journey to heaven, that race that the Hebrews writer talks about is usually not a sprint.

It's more like a marathon.

We have some folks in the audience here who have run marathons and they will tell you that running a marathon pulls upon all of the resources of the physical body.

It requires extensive mental strength to keep running.

When your body says we're out of gas.

The life of a Christian is a marathon.

It's one thing to be firm for a moment for a short period of time to resist temptation, even great temptation in the moment.

But it takes some serious determination to live a consecrated life day after day for perhaps decades.

Marathon runners have to force their bodies to keep running when it just would be so much easier to stop.

Have you ever felt that way about your life as a Christian that you're just tired?

Maybe you're just tired of running the race, tired of facing the difficulties that you have to face because of your commitment to the Lord, tired of resisting temptation when it would be so easy to give in, tired of facing the persecution, the ridicule of others who do not share your faith or convictions, tired of the demands of a righteous life.

And that spiritual fatigue can mount up to the point where people just slowly give up.

Sometimes they just become apathetic and eventually they stop pretending and they just give up.

I think that is a real problem among those who have been Christians for a long time.

I really appreciate the time that is spent by those who prepare our minds for one of the most emotional parts of our worship.

And that's the taking of the Lord's Supper who spend time reminding us of the emotions that are involved, the the concepts that pertain to the death on the cross, love and mercy and justice, all of these things and more because it energizes us, it helps us with this fatigue that I'm describing.

I think sometimes Christians fail to finish because they're distracted.

This may be the more common reason.

And I think it affects Christians of all ages or maybe I should say Christians regardless of where they are relatively speaking on their journey.

Because the truth is that all of us are at different places in this journey.

Some of us have just started the journey.

Some of us have been on this journey for a long time.

Some are near the finish, but all of us can possibly be distracted by the momentary pleasures of the world that take our eyes off of the goal.

And slowly we're drawn to a different path that broad way that the Lord talked about in the sermon on the mount even legitimate concerns, things that have to do with our daily lives, things that we really do have to pay some attention to that they can take over our lives.

We can become obsessed with making money and, and gathering wealth and it takes our eyes off of the goal.

It causes us to neglect what is necessary for our unswerving loyalty to our king.

I think sometimes Christians and I believe this has become more of a problem in more recent times.

Sometimes Christians are distracted by the various things that they hear or see in digital technology.

The internet has all kinds of cunning doctrines and false ideas.

And some people just lap that up.

They're constantly reading these things in an undisc manner, not necessarily comparing them or examining them for truth.

And so they're drawn away, distracted by these kinds of things.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians as he talked about what God has provided for the church for our growth to maturity.

He said so that we may no longer be Children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

And there are some people who are distracted by whatever new thing comes along.

And so they grab on to things that they read on the internet without necessarily understanding the truth.

In second Timothy chapter four, Paul warned Timothy for the time is coming when people will not endure sound or healthy teaching.

But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions.

Sometimes people are distracted by what's being said over here on, on the internet or by other religious teachers because they like what it says.

They like the fact that it accommodates their passions, sinful passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

And so sometimes people begin to race well, and then at some point they just start listening to falsehoods and it pulls them away, they don't finish successfully.

And I think sometimes discouragement factors into this business of not finishing well.

We look around and we see others who claim to be Christians and yet it seems fairly obvious that they're not running the race properly as was suggested by Ethan this morning.

Sometimes Christians behave improperly toward others, whether they're brethren or unbelievers.

And that can be discouraging to those who are trying to do what is right.

And yet they see this sometimes hypocrisy or at least imperfection in the lives of others.

We see people who just give up and stop running the race and that can be discouraging to those of us who are still trying to run.

Sometimes I think we're discouraged by our own failures.

We know ourselves better than we know others and we know in our own hearts that there are weaknesses and failures and sometimes we can so beat ourselves up.

We just get discouraged and give up.

I think sometimes people just wonder if the race can really be finished successfully.

Anyway, the race is a difficult race.

I would be lying to you if I said the life of a Christian was an easy thing that everything will be fine that you'll never have to struggle against temptation, that nobody will ever say a crossword or uh uh any kind of words of ridicule toward you.

And Paul would say to Timothy that all those who would live Godly are going to suffer persecution.

The Apostle Paul also in Romans five verse three said, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces.

So I would hasten to point out that suffering doesn't always produce endurance.

The Apostle Paul is saying that it can do that and that's the proper response to that, but sometimes people just give up.

It's too much.

I can't do it, nobody can finish successfully.

And sometimes it's just the length of the race.

If you've been a Christian for several decades, sometimes it's easy to lose that fervor to lose that commitment, that zeal that you felt when you first became one of God's spiritual Children.

So what can we do to try to ensure that we don't fall by the wayside and fail to finish the race?

Well, Peter says some things about that in second Peter one verses three through 211, we're going to look at some of those verses.

But I want you to see the very first part of that passage.

Second Peter one verse three, where Peter writes and he's writing to Christians, he says, his divine power, God's power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

This passage is so rich because it brings in so many different concepts.

And beginning in verse three, he tells us that what God has called us to is his own glory and excellence.

We have a high goal that we're striving for and a great reward that has been promised.

But also in the beginning of this verse, Peter Ryan, that God has given us everything that we need to finish this race.

That's essentially what he's saying.

All things that pertain to life and Godliness.

There's not anything that you need as a Christian that God hasn't provided in one way or through one avenue or another.

I think that's important.

Ever started a task, maybe a big project, maybe a race and realized at some point very early on that you just weren't prepared for this, that you hadn't really thought through all the things that were necessary that you were going to require in order to finish it.

I have sometimes I wonder if that's not why I procrastinate with some projects, you never know what's going to happen when you get started.

You never know how long it might take or what you might find when you get started.

It's things you didn't anticipate.

But Peter said that God has provided all the things that we need in order to finish this race.

He goes on to say beginning in verse five, that what we need to do is be diligent, to be adding certain qualities to our lives.

He mentions adding virtue to our faith, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly, affection, and love.

He says, if you add these things and they are increasing, in other words, it's not uh uh a one and done, but this is a constant process of adding these.

Sometimes people call them Christian graces.

I I'm not sure that's a great way to describe them, but they're qualities that, that need to be added to our, our person, to our character.

But I want you to notice in particular verses 225 and 11.

Peter Rein, therefore, brothers be all the more diligent to confirm you're calling an election for.

If you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

I said early on that there are some people who believe that it's impossible for a Christian to fall away.

That's not what Peter say.

Peter says.

If you add these qualities, there's a condition here.

But if you add these qualities, then you will not fall for in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I think the Hebrews writer provided some additional information for us about this race.

This journey that we're on as Christians in the 12th chapter.

In the first three verses, here's what he says.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, consider Him who endured from sinners, such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.

Now that last phrase there so that we don't grow weary or fainthearted that ought to ring a bell with us because that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about Christians, some Christians who get tired, who become weary.

How do we avoid that?

I want you to notice several things that the Hebrews writer says here in this passage, I think this is a rich passage.

He says, first of all, we need to lay aside anything that would encumber us.

He talks about weight and he also talks about sin that entangles us or closely clings to us as the ESV says, wait, whatever it is encumbers us.

I think he makes a distinction between some things that are probably not sinful, but that can keep us from finishing the race.

And then there are other things that are sinful and they will likewise cause us not to finish successfully.

You know, runners try to avoid carrying any extra weight.

You know, you're starting a marathon 26 miles plus good to have some water with you. Right?

Because you're gonna get dehydrated if you're not careful.

So what most runners do when they run a marathon is they've got this large water pack on their back and it's got a little hose up so they can drink as they go along.

Someone says, it's obvious Mr Allen has never run a marathon because you don't see any marathon runners doing that.

They shed all excess weight.

They get their water by people handing them cups with often is not, hits them in the face or they don't get it and splash it and what not, but they don't carry extra weight eight pounds to the gallon.

And so we as Christians need to do the same thing, we need to shed whatever it is that's encumbering us so that we can't run the race the right way.

Well, the writer also points us to Jesus.

He says, you need to look to Jesus who for the joy that was set before him.

And so the writer says, Jesus looked to the reward.

Jesus looked past the cross to the joy that was set before him.

The joy set before him wasn't the cross.

It was on the other side of the cross when he would be exalted by the father, see Philippians the second chapter.

And then finally, he says, consider him so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Look to the example of Jesus.

How did he run that race all the way successfully to the end?

Jesus looked to the goal.

He looked to the joy that was set before him.

We have a fantastic goal, but we need to remember, have a clear picture of what it is that we are seeking.

Paul would write to Titus as he introduced himself.

He said, Paul in hope of eternal life.

That's our hope.

That's our goal.

That's what we need to be looking at.

Unfortunately, as I said earlier, it's too easy for us to be distracted by the things of this world, all of the concerns, day by day things and we stop seeing what really we're after in Romans.

The second chapter verses seven and 10.

Paul again described what the goal of the Christian is.

We're seeking glory, honor, immortality and peace.

Those are the things that God will provide for those who serve him acceptably.

I want to read along with you first Peter one verses three through seven.

It's up on the screen and I want you to pay attention to verses four and 77.

B. Peter writes blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now, in verse four, he describes that living hope.

It's like he picks up the sentence again and he says, not just to a living hope but to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

Kept in heaven for you reserved for you.

Those words, even though they look at things from a negative standpoint of what it is not.

It provides with us a picture of the great hope that Christians have imperishable.

Everything in this life is winding down, everything deteriorates.

You buy a new car and it begins to rust or you back the U TV, into the side of your truck.

Hypothetically speaking, of course, it is undefiled, unmixed with anything that is evil and unfading.

Debbie and I have hibiscus uh oleander rather.

No, it's Hibiscus.

Hibiscus, two hibiscus plants in our atrium.

I don't know if you know this or not, but a hibiscus will have a beautiful flower and occasionally it will have more than one, the larger bush in the atrium.

But those flowers last one day.

Now we have a second hibiscus.

It's apparently a little bit different kind and the flowers on that, it doesn't bloom as often, but they last a little bit longer, but none of them last very long if you want to enjoy the flower, you better enjoy it today.

Debbie pointed one of them out to me yesterday and by the end of today it'll be gone.

It'll wilted, it'll fall off the plant.

Not your hope in heaven.

That is imperishable.

It's never going to perish, it's never going to fade.

And then last of all, he says in this, you rejoice though.

Now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in.

Here's what we're looking for.

Praise and glory and honor at the revelation.

The coming of Jesus Christ.

That's our hope.

That's what we need to be looking at.

I want to say a little bit more about dealing with fatigue because I think that's a big problem for Christians.

When we become physically tired, often we need to have a period of rest or sleep and that's adequate enough to restore our strength, physically speaking.

And I would suggest to you that spiritual fatigue is not totally unrelated to physical fatigue.

Sometimes Christians just run themselves into the ground trying to do too many things and then eventually at some points can do anything.

I don't know if you've seen these videos, but I've seen several of them and I would give you a video except that the people in the videos are typically quite immodestly dressed, but they're videos of runners, whether you're talking about high school runners cross country or whether you're talking about a marathon, the New York marathon.

But there've been several instances, one just about three months ago where you've got a runner who's finishing almost ready to finish the race and they just run out of this person, just run out of gas.

The one that I'm thinking about appeared on Reddit and it's the picture of a woman coming in at the end of a marathon and she is just, I mean, she has nothing left.

She falls down, she's probably not 50 yards from the finish line.

She falls down and she struggles and she gets up.

But because she just has expended everything that her body has, she can't hardly stand up.

And so she begins to run again, but she goes to the side of the, of the path there and she falls again and she's struggling to get up.

Several runners run past her because there's the finish line right there.

It's uh less than 113 yards away.

One runner comes along and hardly with breaking stride.

She helps this woman up.

It's another woman takes her arm across her shoulder and then I guess runs and half drags this woman over the finish line and you'll see these kind of videos and people are like, well, but you put that person over the finish line before you.

The issue is the point is they were helping somebody finish this race.

Well, the New Testament talks about our role in encouraging others and helping others to finish their race passages like Hebrews 1024 and 25 part of the reading this morning let us consider how to stir up one another, to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near couple of passages in first Thessalonians, five similar concept.

Verse 11, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

Paul writes and we urge you brothers verse 14, admonish the idol, encourage the fainthearted help the weak, be patient with them all.

That's what these runners were doing.

They saw somebody who needed help and they went to help them even at their own expense.

We need to be helping one another others who have become fatigued who seem to be weary in this race.

The strong need to help the weak.

Well, this is the slide you've been waiting for one last passage here.

Uh Main passage, uh Chapter 10 verses 35 to 39 just a little bit farther down uh from the reading this morning.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

That's basically what this sermon has said.

We have a great reward.

Don't throw it away.

Don't as a Christian stop running the race for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay but my righteous one shall live by faith.

And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in Him.

A quotation from the Old Testament.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

That's the end of chapter 10.

And then in chapter 11, the writer begins to list a whole bunch of people who were commended by God because of their faithful obedience.

What he's saying in chapter 11, this writer is, these people ran the race successfully.

They weren't perfect Moses in that group.

Abraham is in that group.

Others in that group were not perfect Samson's in that group, but God doesn't save us on the basis of our perfection.

He saves us on the basis of His grace as we respond to that invitation of grace with obedient faith.

My point in talking about Hebrew 11, Hebrews 11 is you can finish the race successfully.

No reason, no reason why we can't.

And I would encourage all of us to give our efforts to that.

As Christians, we can't quit until we finish the fin reach the finish line.

The Apostle Paul would say in second Timothy four as he apparently approached the finish of his race.

He said I fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the fate he anticipated dying soon.

Apparently, he wrote to the Galatians in chapter six and verse nine and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season.

We will reap if we do not give up.

There have been some in this congregation who have given up some that have been disciplined and have left the faith.

They've decided they love the world more than they love the Lord.

Each of us needs to look into our own hearts and see if we're running successfully now and make the commitment, not to give up, but to continue to do those things that God desires of us so that we can reach that reward, that the scriptures promise when we finish our race as Christians, God will give us the crown of righteousness.

That's what Paul anticipated there.

In second Timothy four verse eight, God will say well done, good and faithful servant.

As we see in Matthew chapter 25.

The question is, are you running the race successfully?

Now, there may be some in this audience who are actually not even in the race yet.

You haven't begun running as a Christian because you haven't obeyed the gospel.

You haven't responded to the preaching of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the resurrected savior as those on the day of Pentecost did when they believe the message of Peter in acts chapter two.

And they asked the question, what shall we do?

Peter told those believers you need to repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Have you done that?

Are you running the race?

You can't receive the prize if you don't the prize, if you don't run the race.

And so if you need to begin running this morning as a Christian, and we want to encourage you to obey the gospel.

Now, while you have the time and opportunity to do that, there's coming a day when the Lord is going to return, he promises that and the Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

Peter says in second Peter three and when he comes, everybody's race is over and those who have not begun, the race will have no further opportunity to begin.

Now you have the time.

Now you have the opportunity.

We encourage you run the race, we encourage you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The Lord sent Malachi to a corrupt Israel to rebuke them.

Their corruption was from the top all the way to the bottom.

In chapter two, he rebuked the priesthood for their corruption.

And then in starting in verse 224, he rebukes the nation as a whole for both their national and personal infidelity.

I invite you to stand out of respect for the word of God as we read together, Malachi chapter two starting in verse 219.

Have we not all one?

Father has not one God created us.

Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves.

He has married the daughter of a foreign God.

May the Lord cut off from the tense of Jacob, the man who does this being awake and aware yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts?

And this is the second thing you do.

You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying.

So he does not regard the offering anymore nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.

Yet you say for what reason?

Because the Lord has been witnessed between you and the wife of your youth with you, with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant?

But did he not make them one having a remnant of the spirit?

And why one?

He seeks Godly offspring?

Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

For the Lord of God, the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garment with violence says the Lord of hosts.

Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously may be seated before we begin our study this morning in Malachi chapter two, perhaps a word of explanation would be helpful regarding the bulletin.

Uh I send the bulletin out every Sunday that I can remember to do so in a PDF format.

And many of you probably see that only in that format, you don't pick up a hard copy.

The article that I wrote for the bulletin this week uses some biblical text.

And for some reason, Adobe in design the program that I use for laying out the bulletin will not put Hebrew text in correctly.

It transposes everything, turns everything back to make it work like it was English.

It's not English, not only does it transpose, transpose the words, it transposes the letters in the words so that they run a different direction.

So what I've done for those of you who may be interested is I've printed out that same article with the Hebrew text in the right order and it appears as a insert in the hard copy of the bulletin that you can get back in the, uh, in the lobby on the table there.

So if you're only looking at the PDF, you may not be aware that that bulletin article also appears in a form that's a little easier to understand because it follows the text of the, the word uh direction of the text in Hebrew.

Now, if that made even less sense to you, get the insert and read it and it will make sense to you.

Um I struggled and struggled with Adobe in design.

You would think that the premier desktop publishing program could print Hebrew.

I don't know why not, but it doesn't.

So Microsoft Word does it just fine.

So that's what you have in the bulletin.

Well, I appreciate your presence here this morning and I want to begin this morning by reminding you that in the very beginning of human history, God records that two individuals, two brothers made offerings, they worshiped God, their offerings were of a different nature.

Cain of course, brought from the fruit of the ground and able offered a sacrifice from the uh first born of the flock.

And the text in Genesis four says that God showed no respect or had no regard for King's offering, but he did regard Abel's offering without going into any other details.

That story just very quickly illustrates the fact that God doesn't accept just any form of worship or any worship that man might offer.

We understand of course, that God has given instructions over man's history as to how he is to be worshiped.

And even in this early case of worship by these two brothers, it appears that one brother didn't follow those instructions.

While the other one did the obvious lesson, God doesn't accept just any worship.

Several weeks ago, we looked at the book of Malachi in a lesson that I uh entitled polluted offerings.

And about the same time as uh Ezra and Nehemiah, those prophets in the post exilic period.

Malachi would address the people of Israel who had returned.

He's about 221 and 224 years after the first group has come back uh from Babylon.

It appears that the exiles were not given to the sin of idolatry, which was the case prior to the exile and actually a primary cause of the exile.

They had a different problem in Malachi's time.

The priests were despising the name of the Lord by offering what Malachi calls polluted food on the altar in chapter one verses six and seven.

What do you mean by polluted food?

Malachi?

Well, they were offering defective or second rate animals as sacrifices even though the law said that if you brought a sacrifice to God, an animal as a sin offering or some other kind of offering, it was to be the best of the flock.

It was to be perfect.

You couldn't bring a three legged lamb or a blind lamb as sacrifice.

But that's what the priests had begun doing.

And in so doing, they were despising the Lord's table.

They were offering to God, what the prophet challenges them to even offer to their governor to see if he would receive those kinds of offerings.

And so in verse eight of chapter one, Malachi says, when you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil present that to your governor?

Will he accept you or show you favor?

Says the Lord of hosts.

That's a rhetorical question.

Of course.

No, he certainly would not.

Why would we think that God would accept something less than the best that we can offer?

And so the people were cutting the corners, so to speak in their worship.

Now, maybe one of the priests or some of those who were worshiping would say, well, at least I'm worshiping.

I brought something to the Lord.

I didn't just ignore him, but that kind of worship it seems was worse than no worship at all.

Continuing in the same chapter in Malachi one verses nine and 221.

Malachi writes and now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand.

Will he show favor to you?

Says, the Lord of Hosts.

And then the Lord says in verse 212, 103, that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain.

I have no pleasure in you says, the Lord of hosts and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

And so the people were bringing these defective offerings, the priests were offering them.

And God says, I just wish someone would close the door so they wouldn't kindle a fire on the altar for these kinds of offerings.

I will not accept that kind of worship.

And so once again, we understand the basic principle that God doesn't accept just any worship, but worship needs to reflect uh obedience to his instructions.

I want to continue.

Now in the book of Malachi today in chapter two, to talk about another problem that I think the people of Malachi's Day had and it also affected their worship.

And I've entitled our study this morning Sunday, only Chris Christians.

I was chided a little bit this morning for excluding the Wednesday night, only Christians.

But I think you'll understand the principle that I'm going to get.

And in our text is the text that was written or read rather by Eric in Malachi two verses 210 through 210.

In that text Malachi indicates that the people were dealing treacherously with one another.

He says, even though they had the same father or have we not all one father?

He says in verse 2100 has not one God created us and yet one Israelite was dealing treacherously with another.

And it appears as we read through the first three verses here that what was happening is that men, Jewish men were marrying women from other nations.

Judah has married the daughter of a foreign God.

These were women who worshiped other gods who were not worshiping Jehovah God Malachi, as I've already noted, lived at about the same time period as Ezra and Nehemiah and both of those men struggled with this very same problem.

The problem of men marrying women from other nations, idolaters, contrary to the instructions of the law, the law indicated that Jews should marry other people of their nation not to marry foreign women.

And there are several passages that we're going to look at here just to kind of quickly illustrate the problem.

And the rebuke that was given by Ezra and Nehemiah, we're gonna look at Ezra.

The ninth chapter verses two through four where Ezra says, for they have taken some of their daughters to be wives, for themselves and for their sons so that the Holy Race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands and in this faithlessness, the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost and So when Ezra is informed of this, as he writes about it later, he says, as soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.

Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.

Ezra dealt with this same issue.

And in chapter 10, we're told that it wasn't confined just to the common people.

Even some of the sons of the priests had married foreign women.

Someone would say, well, the priests were those who were given among other duties, the responsibility of teaching the law to the people.

If anybody should have known what the law said about contracting marriages with foreign women, the priests should have known.

But it's even in the priesthood that this is happening.

Ezra tells us in chapter 10, Nehemiah also had to deal with this problem.

This is a little bit of a uh an extensive reading.

But if you'll pardon me, uh Nehemiah writes in those days also, I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab Ashdod was a city but Ammon and Moab were foreign nations and half of their Children spoke the language of Ashdod and they could not speak the language of Judah Hebrew, but only the language of each people.

And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair and I made them take an oath in the name of God saying you shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

That's what the law said.

Don't do those things.

And in Deuteronomy, the people were told, don't contract these kinds of marriages, they'll pull you away from the Lord.

And so Nehemiah then observes in verse 26 did not Solomon king of Israel sin.

On account of such women among the many nations, there was no king like him and he was beloved by his God and God made him king over all Israel.

Nevertheless, foreign women made even Him to sin.

He was influenced by his many wives, wives from other nations.

Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women.

And I wanted you to hear that last word and act treacherously against our God because that's the same word that's used over in Malachi too, in the English translation to talk about what the people were doing.

They were dealing treacherously with one another and incidentally, they were profaned the covenant, the law of Moses that had been given to the people back in Malachi two and verse 12.

The last verse in this particular section, the consequence of their actions is listed.

May the Lord cut off from the tense of Jacob, the man who does this being awake and aware yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.

So you've got individuals who are violating the law of God by contracting these marriages with foreign women.

But they were still bringing their gifts, their, their sacrifices to God.

And we learned that there was another problem that their treachery was even compounded.

If you look at the, the second part of this reading from this morning, beginning verse 13.

And this is the second thing you do.

Malachi writes, you cover the altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and crying.

So he does not regard the offering anymore nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.

There's some controversy among commentators as to whose doing the weeping, whether it's women who have been dealt treacherously with or whether it's just the Israelites in general, that they understand that God's not accepting their offering anymore.

And I'm not even sure how they would know that but they're distressed.

The people are distressed because God no longer regarded their offerings or accepted them with favors.

The ESV says, well then in verse 14, yet you say for what reason, why is it that God's not accepting our worship?

And the answer is because the Lord has been witnessed between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

As we noted earlier, these were men who were marrying foreign women, but it was even worse than that.

They were divorcing their wives, the wives of their youth and then marrying some woman who was from another nation, worshiped another God.

Their wives are described as the wife of your youth, your companion, the word companion.

There is translated from a verb that means to bind together, to unite something.

She was your companion and she's your wife by covenant.

But they were breaking that covenant.

There are other passages that talk about marriage as a covenant that wouldn't surprise us because even in our uh secular or traditional wedding ceremonies, people take vows, make vows to one another.

They make promises, they agree to live together as man and wife.

Ezekiel chapter 103 in verse eight uses a covenant to describe or vows to describe the relationship of God with Israel in the figure of a marriage.

But these men were divorcing these women, they'd married in their youth and then they replaced them with foreign wives.

And the Bible says the Lord has been witness of this treachery.

And so now he doesn't accept your offerings.

Well, is it because the offerings were bad?

Were they defective?

Well, that may have been also true.

But the reason they're not accepted when they're offered in the temple is because of what the people were doing in their daily lives.

They were profaning the covenant.

They were not regarding God's instructions.

For marriage.

I like this description.

I think it is perhaps a little blunt and yet I think accurate.

It's written by a puritan commentator who was commenting on the treachery of these men.

And he's quoted by Walter Kaiser in his commentary on this section, she whom you thus wronged was the companion of those earlier and brighter days wherein when in the bloom of her young beauty, she left her father's house and shared your early struggles and rejoiced in your later success.

Who walked arm in arm with you along the pilgrimage of life, cheering you in its trials by her gentle ministry.

And now when the bloom of her youth has faded and the friends of her youth have gone.

When her father and mother whom she left for you are in the grave, then you cruelly cast her off as a worn out worthless thing and insult her holiest affections by putting an idolater and a heathen in her place.

And I think that describes pretty well what happens a lot in our country, two people in their youth get married.

And in those early days of the marriage life is more difficult.

The man, perhaps if he's the uh the breadwinner in the family, he hasn't established himself in his profession.

And so she supports him and works with him and they go through the difficult years sometimes of child rearing and all of the trials that come with that.

And then as she begins to get older and she's not as attractive as she once was.

Then he divorces her and he goes out and marry some young thing.

You ever see that happen in the social media?

Or have you seen it in friends people?

You know, it's a common thing and God says you deal treacherously with your wife.

When you do that, you violate the covenant that you made when you were married.

And verse 16 tells us about the Lord's attitude toward divorce.

Of course, we're not talking about Matthew 99.

We're not talking about any kind of an exception.

We're talking about God's general attitude toward divorce and it is that he hates it because so often it involves treachery.

I've used the new King James version today because there's some difference between the new King James version and the ESV.

I think you can make an argument for either translation.

I don't think one is blatantly wrong, but I think the new King James version seems to follow the context better here.

And so that's why I using it today.

And that translation says the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garment with violence covers one's garment is a figure of speech that refers euphemistically to the marriage relationship.

So what is it that Malachi is trying to tell these people?

What's the Lord saying to them?

It is that the worship of the people was being rejected by the Lord because of their disregard of his covenant in their daily lives.

Or if we could boil that down, God wants us all the time to obey him.

Not just on Sundays, people sometimes have incorrect ideas about worship.

Even as I think these uh people who had returned from exile did some incorrect ideas about worship would include this concept of coming to worship God on Sunday.

And if I do that, it makes up for anything that I've done during the week.

And so it's kind of a zero sum game, uh a failure in God's favor, favor during the week by my misbehavior, my sinful behavior, I can top that off on Sunday by coming and worshiping God.

And so it just kind of evens out.

So my worship on Sunday cancels all of the things that I did wrong during the week.

I want to point out that in Malachi's rebuke, we're talking about people who were disregarding God's covenant totally.

In some areas, we're not talking about the individual who occasionally falls short of what God wants him to be.

But then tries to make that right by repenting and asking for forgiveness.

We're talking about people who just decide I'm not going to worry about this part of what God's law says, like those who are marrying foreign women, but I'll come to church on Sunday and God will be happy with that because after all, I'm re religious, you know, it's interesting to me, uh, that some very wicked people have also been very religious and they attended church services on a regular basis.

If you want a good illustration of that, read about the Mao Mafiosos.

And how many of them were staunch roman Catholics even though they would go to church on Sunday and then order somebody's execution on Monday.

Well, going to church kinda makes it better, doesn't it kinda balances out so to speak, the good with the bad?

That's one incorrect idea about worship.

Worship doesn't perform that function.

But there's another idea that I think is somewhat common among religious people that is also incorrect with respect to worship.

And that is that God's goodwill toward my worship.

His opinion of my worship has essentially no connection to the rest of my life that God is not worried about what I do Monday through Saturday, as long as I'm here on Sunday and I worship him on that day.

Of course, there are a lot of people who believe that God chose certain people to be saved before the foundation of the world independent of anything they might do. Yes.

No, yes, no, yes, no.

God chose them according to his own will and they are saved no matter what.

It's a systemic theology known as Calvinism.

And that same system of theology also says that essentially God doesn't take into account our sa our sins.

Once we've been saved, all he sees is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is credited to us.

And so all those sins don't really matter much because if God's decided you're going to be saved, you're gonna be saved no matter what.

And that's their understanding of the sovereignty of God.

You can't thwart God when God decides to do something.

And so I come to worship on Sunday because I'm one of the elect, one of the chosen.

But then Monday through Saturday, I live like a child of the devil because God doesn't see any of that.

The imputed righteousness of Christ is like an umbrella over my life.

And that's all that God sees.

And that's an oversimplification of that Calvinistic doctrine, but it is essentially the principle behind it.

And I want you to know that both of those ideas are false.

The scriptures teach that these ideas are wrong, multiple prophets made the same point as Malachi.

And that is that the people's worship was rejected because of their failures in other areas.

And I'm gonna give you three examples.

And I want to read through these verses so that you can see that it's the same point that Malachi is making Amos in chapter five.

And verse 21 says, God says, I hate, I despise your feast.

Well, this is what people were doing to worship God.

He says, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies, even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings.

I will not accept them and the peace offerings of your fattened animals.

I will not look upon them.

Take away from me this noise of your songs to the melody of your hearts.

I will not listen.

But let justice roll down by like waters and righteousness, like an ever flowing stream in the interest of time.

We won't go through some of the things that Amos said were problems in the Northern kingdom.

But that last sentence in verse 24 tells you what's going on, doesn't it?

God says, what I'm really looking for is justice in your daily lives and until righteousness is like an ever flowing stream, then I don't care about this worship that you're offering.

It's like us going to church on Sunday and, and we're just Sunday, only Christians the rest of the week we do what we want.

God says, I don't care for that kind of worship.

I will not regard it.

The prophet Isaiah also makes this point hear the word of the Lord.

You rulers of sodom.

Give ear to the teaching of our God.

You people of Gomara Isaiah sent to the Southern Kingdom and he's talking to the leaders.

Well, what to me is the multitude of your sacrifice says, the Lord I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well fed beasts.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats when you come to appear before me who has required of you this trampling of my courts.

You're just trampling my courts, bringing all these sacrifices.

And I didn't, I don't want those, bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me.

New Moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations.

I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

So you come to worship, but your lives are full of sin, your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates.

they become a burden to me.

I'm weary of bearing them.

Please understand these were things that God commanded in the law that the people were to do.

That's how they were supposed to worship in these feasts and these sacrifices.

But when all of that is divorced from the way that you live during the day, the rest of the week, Isaiah says none of that means anything to me.

I despise that when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers, I will not listen, your hands are full of blood.

The imagery here is so powerful.

They're spreading out their hands to God asking for God to bless them.

And God says there's blood on your hands.

So I'm not listening to you because of the sin in your daily life, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes cease to do evil.

Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless plead the widow's cause all of those things talk about what you do during the week.

If you'll pardon the anachronism, it's what you do outside of the place of worship.

It's the way that you treat other people.

It's living God's covenant, not just on Sunday or for the Jews on Sabbath, but all through the weak one final passage here in Jeremiah six from the Old Testament.

Jeremiah again, Southern Kingdom toward the end of uh its time, Jeremiah and chapter uh the early chapters has described some of the sins of the nation of the people as individuals.

And in verse 19, he says, Hero earth, behold, I'm bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices.

The Lord says, because they have not paid attention to my words.

And as for my law, they have rejected it.

So they reject God's law, but they're still offering some sacrifices and worship to God.

And he says, what use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land.

Your burnt offerings are not acceptably acceptable, nor your sacrifice is pleasing to me.

Oh, we, we're bringing incense from far away Sheba, maybe Yemen today and, and, and all of this, all of these other things, we, we're really working hard to bring sacrifices.

And God says that's nothing to me.

Not as long as you've rejected my law.

Well, I want you to see that that wasn't just an old Testament principle.

And Jesus gives a specific application to the same principle in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the fifth chapter in verses 21 through 24 interesting passage because we typically think of worship as being one of the most important things.

And so listen to what Jesus says, beginning verse 21.

You have heard that it was said to those of bold, you shall not murder, whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says, you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar, I'm I'm coming to worship.

I'm I'm here.

I've got my gift.

I'm at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Wow, Jesus says you're on the cusp of worshiping me.

But there's a problem between you and your brother.

Your brother has you sin against your brother.

You leave your gift, go be reconciled to him, take care of that problem and then come back and worship me.

Is that not really the same principle that these old Testament prophets were saying that whether or not my worship is acceptable to God depends largely on how I'm living my life and the way I'm treating others during the rest of my life, I want to be careful that we do not look at this principle in a rather too specific way because I think this principle applies more than just those men who might divorce their husbands and remarry some young thing.

I'll give you a couple of illustrations that I think may resonate with uh our experiences over life.

You ever known a congregation where you've got brethren, maybe two brothers or two sisters in this congregation.

They worship in the same congregation.

They come together every Sunday, they're worshiping, but they won't speak to each other because something happened, one sin against the other.

Or maybe they both think there's been sin involved, but there's disunity, their fractured, their relationship is fractured, but then they come together and they offer their worship to God.

And I would suggest to you that what Malachi would tell those individuals is God's not interested in your worship.

You're wasting your time coming here and offering up your worship to me when you don't treat your brethren, right?

Take it away.

Don't waste your time.

Now, please understand.

I'm talking in the extreme with hyperbole.

I'm not suggesting that God doesn't want us to worship Him.

He wants us to worship Him.

But the point is that worship that is separated, that is disconnected from the way I live my life.

The rest of the time is of really no value.

God doesn't regard it or respect it as the ESB would say.

I wonder, I seriously wonder how many hours of worship have been offered in vain by individuals who lift up their hands to God and sing songs and pray and take the Lord's supper and hate the brother who sits in the pew to their left or right.

God says, I don't care about that. Worship.

Another illustration.

We come to worship on Sunday and we offer our praise to God and we make commitments in our singing and in our prayers and we give the appearance of righteousness and loyalty to God.

And then we go home and we mistreat others.

Those who are the members of our family.

Does God care about my worship if that's the way I'm treating others.

If as a husband, I don't love my wife, I'm ignoring what the Lord has to say about my responsibilities and the marital relationship.

And in the home, does God care about my worship?

If as a parent, I'm mistreating abusing, perhaps my Children.

Does God care about my worship if I'm disregarding, ignoring what he said are my responsibilities as a parent, my obligations.

How many spouses, how many parents waste their time in worship after mistreating family members in their homes?

It's almost as though we sometimes seem to think that God only sees us when we're here.

He only looks down through the roof of this building.

But my house because it has a metal roof can't see through the metal roof.

So what happens in my home, God doesn't really take any stock of that so I can treat my family any way I want.

Then I come here and praise Jesus.

In these cases, the worship of these brethren is not regarded by the Lord.

And it is my hope that we don't fall into those, those cases, those groups.

I hope that our loyalty to the Lord is not just on Sundays that we offer worship, but we also pay attention to the Lord's instructions the rest of the week because that's just as important as coming together here on the first day of the week to worship.

Malachi says they're connected and you can't just focus on one and not the other.

Our text in Malachi obviously provides some information about God's attitude toward divorce and we could say a whole lot more about that perhaps.

But our focus this morning has been on how disregard for God's covenant for his law affects our worship.

And I hope the study has been helpful in the way that we think about what we do here as it's related to how we live the rest of our lives.

We cannot separate the acceptability of our worship from our daily lives.

Well, in that principle, I think the idea that God's looking at all of our life, not just Sundays or Wednesdays suggests that God wants all of our heart, all of our mind, all of us to belong to him and not just some portion that we offer.

Perhaps on Sunday, how many people around the world are engaged in worship?

Maybe even this morning, all the while ignoring what God has said about becoming a part of his spiritual family.

You know, if I'm not listening to what God has to say in His word about how I can have my sins forgiven, I can worship from now constantly until the day I die.

And it really won't mean much.

We've got to listen to the voice of the shepherd if we're going to be his sheep.

And so the Bible tells us that we need to hear the gospel and we need to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

There's no other name given among men by which we may be saved according to acts four and verse 12, we need to repent of our sins.

That's what Peter told those people on the day of Pentecost.

When they were convinced that they had crucified as a nation, they put to death, the Son of God, what men and brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter did not say well, congratulations.

You believe in Jesus.

The work is done.

You're saved.

But instead he said to them in verse 198 of chapter two, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

And that's exactly what I preach today.

What needs to be preached today.

The believers need to repent of their sins.

They need to confess their faith as Paul would write in Romans the 10th chapter verses nine and 10.

And then they need to be baptized, immersed in water for the remission of their sins.

Buried with Christ in baptism.

Romans six says where we come in contact with that blood that cleanses us from our sins.

If you're not a Christian, are you listening to God's instructions?

But I will say to you, there's no point in being baptized if you're not willing to commit yourself 100% to the Lord because he doesn't want just Sunday only Christians.

In fact, they really aren't Christians.

They don't belong to Christ.

What he wants is for us to become new creatures.

And to remember that we were bought with a price.

The price is the blood of Christ.

And so we need to glorify God in our bodies, in our minds and our behavior because we belong to Him.

If we're Christians.

Are you a Christian this morning?

If not, then we want to encourage you as we stand and sing just a moment to take steps to become part of the Lord's church, part of his spiritual family.

If we can assist you in doing that this morning, then please come to the front, we'll assist you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

A reading will be from Ephesians chapter 6.

Verses 10-20 I'll be reading from the ESV. Ephesians 6, 10-20.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert, perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Well, good morning. I appreciate your presence here this morning, particularly those of you who are visiting with us. We are grateful for your willingness to come and worship with us, and we hope that you are encouraged and edified by the time that we spend together. I want to suggest to you at the very outset of our study this morning that music has power. Debbie and I had the opportunity just a couple weeks ago to spend some time with our Zimbabwean brethren, and I love their singing. Their singing is very moving, even though I only understand about one out of every ten or fifteen words. And so it's hard for me to relate to the message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Of the songs, but just the melody and the fervor with which they sing is very moving. And the influence of a song is definitely increased by its lyrics. In fact, I would suggest to you that the most crucial thing in our worship in song are the lyrics. The scriptures indicate that our singing has at least two purposes, and the passages that we typically look at are in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. And those passages suggest that, first of all, that our singing is worship to God, that we are singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts. At the same time that our worship in song is directed to heaven, it is also directed to one another. As we teach and admonish one another in wisdom in the songs.

Of those purposes, you can see clearly, depend upon the lyrics of the songs. We don't offer praise by melody. We offer praise in the words that we sing. And the same thing is true of the teaching and admonishing that we do as we sing. Well, if I got up here this morning and began teaching something that was very contrary to what you can read in your Bibles, you would probably object. There would be some correction made by the elders. That might be one of those things like in the old time cartoons where they had the little hook that comes and, you know, grabs you and kind of whisks you away. That might happen. You wouldn't put up with teaching that was contrary to the truth of God's word. And we really shouldn't put up with it in our songs. I don't know. If we're teaching and admonishing one another in the songs that we sing, those songs really need to be accurate.

With respect to what the Scriptures teach. Many of our songs make allusions, as you've probably noticed often, to specific Scriptures, even borrowing sometimes specific words or phrases from Scriptures with which we are familiar. Some songs use phrases and certainly use some of the figures that we see in Scripture as well. And so this morning, I want to talk about the song that we just sang. I think it is a wonderful song. We sang it not too long ago, and as we were singing it just a couple, three weeks or more ago, it struck me how many different connections there are in this song's lyrics with various Scriptures and even some concepts in Scripture, if not specific references. to verses themselves.

I know that we just sang this song, and so you maybe have the lyrics in your mind, but we're going to look at each of the verses of this song, and I want to point out what I think are some of the connections, some of the references that the song makes. And I think my objective this morning primarily is simply to emphasize the message of the song, but to show that this song is grounded in so many different passages. I'll be frank with you. I am absolutely certain that I'm not going to bring out every passage that perhaps the songwriter had in mind, and I may bring out some passages that maybe the songwriter didn't have in mind, but it's astounding to me how many connections there are in the verses of this song, O Church Arise, with scriptures that we are familiar with. And so I want to point out that this song is grounded in so many different passages, and I want to begin with the first verse.

And if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go ahead and reread the verses, even though we just sang the song so that these concepts are fresh in our mind. Verse 1 says, O church, arise and put your armor on. Hear the call of Christ our captain. For now the weak can say that they are strong in the strength that God has given. With shield of faith and belt of truth, we'll stand against the devil's lies. An army bold whose battle cry is love, reaching out to those in darkness. I want to suggest to you that the summary of this first verse is simply that as Christians, we are engaged in a spiritual battle. I know most of us, if not all of us, really would prefer not to be involved in controversy. We would like to get along with other people and to have peace and harmony. Not just with our brethren, but with others as well.

But the Bible says that we are soldiers in Christ's service. It uses that figure the New Testament does many times, and this song does as well. As Christians, we are engaged in a spiritual battle. And as a result, we are instructed to put on the panoply, the armor of God. In fact, twice in the reading that was done from Ephesians 6, we are told to put on or take up the armor of God. And there are references to specific parts or elements of that armor.

I'm going to read the various scriptures. We've got a number of scriptures that I want to kind of look at. If you'll pardon me, I'm not going to spend the time to give you the context of every scripture that we read, but rather just make the connection to the verse with which it's associated. Unless, of course, you want me to give the context of every passage.

Yeah, I think that was no. So I'm going to just read these passages quickly, and I think you'll see the connections. Of course, the passage in Ephesians 6 verses 10 and 11 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. That's the charge that's given in this first verse. Put your armor on. Arise, put your armor on. And also in verse, in the third stanza, for now the weak can say that they are strong in the strength that God has given. And it emphasizes the fact that our strength, our defense against the evil one lies in the armor that God provides his people. I'm having a little bit of trouble this morning with drainage, and so if you'll pardon me, hopefully I won't lose my voice or anything, but if we continue.

In chapter 6 of Ephesians, Paul writes, Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and taking up, in verse 16, the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Those elements of the panoply or the armor of God are mentioned here will stand against the devil's lies with these elements or pieces of the Lord's armor.

It's interesting to me that the verse, the second stanza says, Hear the call of Christ, our captain. In the ESV, the phrase or the word captain is not used in the translation of Hebrews 2.10 or Hebrews 12 and verse 2. But in the New King James Version and in the King James Version, that's the translation. He is the captain of our salvation. Vine makes the observation that that word archegos is a word that means one who takes the lead or who provides the first occasion of something. And Jesus is the one who is our captain. He takes the lead. He took the lead in opposing Satan. He took the lead in suffering for righteousness. And he's the one who went first into the presence. The first.

Fruits of those who would follow eventually. That's us. And so the Hebrew writer says, for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. This verse also emphasizes that our strength is in the Lord. And I understand that's very difficult to read, but Paul is talking in second Corinthians, the 12th chapter about the fact that he had seen many revelations and in order to humble him, it was permitted that he be afflicted by a thorn in the flesh. And he prayed to God for the removal of this thorn. But the Lord's response in verse nine, middle of that section was my grace is sufficient for you for my power, is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul then concludes, therefore, I will.

Boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, and I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now that's not necessarily the case with everyone. An individual may wallow in their weakness, but Paul is saying that when I am weak, and I am forced to depend on the Lord for strength, that's when I'm really strong. And the verse brings that out. For now the weak can say that they are strong in the strength that God has given. In 2 Corinthians, the 13th chapter, verse 4, Paul once again talks about weakness. For he, Christ, was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him, by the power of God.

There's something interesting about this battle, however. If you look at the verse, the last two lines, stanzas say, an army bold whose battle cry is love reaching out to those in darkness. That's not typically the battle cry of those who are involved in some sort of carnal or physical war or battle. Destroy the enemy is kind of the cry that you would expect. But the battle cry here with us in our bold fight against the enemy is love. And we are reaching out to those who are in darkness. In Ephesians, the fifth chapter, verse eight, Paul reminds them that at one time they were darkness, these Christians. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. He wrote to the Colossians. Colossians in chapter one in verse 13, that Christ God, or rather, I should say, has delivered.

Us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We were called out of darkness, Peter would say in 1 Peter 2, that we might proclaim the excellencies of God. When the apostle Paul was making his defense in the book of Acts in chapter 26 before the Roman governor and King Agrippa, he related the commission that he had been given by the Lord. If you recall, Paul had been a persecutor who became a saint who was commissioned as an apostle. And Paul says in chapter 26 and verse 18 that he was called by God to go to the Gentiles to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. They may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

We were in darkness, but now we're children of light. And our task as soldiers of the Lord is to reach out to those who are in darkness, help them come into the light of life. Well, let's take a look at the second verse. And once again, I'd like to read it along with you. The writer says, Our call to war, to love the captive soul, but to rage against the captor. And with the sword that makes the wounded whole, we will fight with faith and valor. When faced with trials on every side, we know the outcome is secure, and Christ will have the prize for which he died, an inheritance of nations.

We're in a different kind of fight. If you notice, he says, we love the captive soul, the one that we're trying to reach, the one that we're in battle with. We're actually trying to release that person from the bondage of sin, obviously through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're instruments that Christ uses in that task. But notice also, he says, and with the sword that makes the wounded whole. Back in Ephesians 6, Paul says that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. But you don't heal people with swords. You injure them with swords. Typically in a physical body, that's your offensive weapon and a defensive weapon as well. But it's the way that you strike at the enemy. But the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is the way that the wounded is actually healed. And there's irony. In the phrasing of...

That verse. In 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 through 26, Paul also helps us gain perspective in this struggle that we have with the people around us. And the Lord's servant, he wrote, must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. Not quarrelsome, kind, patiently correcting with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Our call to war, to love the captive soul, the people around us in the world are not really the.

The enemy. They are those who are being held captive by the evil one, by their own choices, and yet our task, our struggle, is to help free them from this bondage.

With the sword that makes the wounded whole. In 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, in verses 4 through 6, Paul talks about the kind of warfare that he was engaged in. It appears from the beginning of that text, that chapter, that Paul may have been accused by some at Corinth of behaving in somewhat of a carnal way. But Paul says we don't fight with carnal weapons. He says instead the weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Paul says what we're trying to do is change the way people think. We're trying to defeat the ideas that would keep people in bondage to sin. We don't use weapons of, carnal warfare.

We're trying to capture the minds of people using the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. This particular verse ends by saying, and Christ will have the prize for which he died, an inheritance of nations. It's interesting that usually when we think of an inheritance in New Testament terms, we think of our inheritance. We think of eternal life. And Peter writes about that in 1 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4. But this verse is talking about Christ's inheritance. And it reminds us, perhaps, of the Messianic second psalm, where in the midst of that psalm, the writer says, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. A verse that's quoted several times in the New Testament and a place that's quoted in the New Testament. It's applied each time to the Christ, to Jesus. Ask of me.

And I will make the nations your heritage. Heritage is just another word for inheritance. And the ends of the earth your possession. So inheritance here, as defined by the verse, is the nations who would come into this body of Christ, who would belong to Christ, who would become part of his kingdom, those over whom he ruled. Even in Isaiah 53, a passage that we typically think of as describing in great detail suffering of Jesus on the cross, and that is certainly true. But as you work down toward verse 11, the writer Isaiah says, Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. His knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. God is being spoken of, but Christ is the one who is going to make many to be accounted righteous. How did he do that?

He died on the cross. He provided for our forgiveness. And in that sense, we become part of His inheritance, part of His heritage. The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12, and I'm quoting from the New King James Version here, he writes, For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day. When we become Christians, we are making a commitment to Christ, and the promise that He has made for us is that we will have eternal life. Paul says, I'm confident that God can keep what I've committed to Him until that day of judgment, until that day. In Ephesians 1, verse 18, I believe this passage is really talking about the very same thing as the song that we're looking at, that.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. We are, as God's people, Christ's inheritance.

And he died to achieve that inheritance.

The third verse, I think, can be summarized briefly as being Christ the victor. Come, see the cross, where love and mercy meet, as the Son of God is stricken. Then, see his foes lie crushed beneath his feet, for the conqueror has risen. As the stone is rolled away and Christ emerges from the grave, this victory march continues till the day every eye and heart shall see him.

I had to cut the number off here on this particular verse. There are so many verses that relate to the things that are said here, some of which we will not take time to look at. But I want you to notice a couple of things here that we won't point out necessarily in verses. If you look at the second line, it says, as the Son of God is stricken. But when you go down to the sixth line, it says, and Christ emerges from the grave. Why did the author of the song swap those two ideas? Why did he change from the Son of God to the Christ?

And I think the reason is to emphasize what was going on at the cross. It wasn't just a human being being put to death. It was the Son of God in human flesh. And I think that's the reason why the Hebrew author says more than once that by one sacrifice, he has cleansed forever all sins of those who will respond to him. And he says in verse 5 there, And as the stone is rolled away, and Christ emerges from the grave.

Christ, a term for the anointed one, a term that describes one that God has selected. The Christ is the king of the Old Testament. We could put 2 Samuel 7 up here, 12-14, where David is promised that one of his descendants would sit on the throne. Or we could look at Romans 1 and verse 4 that talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ being essentially the demonstration of the Spirit to the validity of Jesus' deity. There are so many verses that relate to this idea that the resurrection is tied to the rule of Jesus Christ. And we'll kind of try to indicate some of that as we go through some of these passages.

The first two lines, see the cross where the Son of God is stricken. Then, see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet. The contrast there. The cross looked like a defeat. I think even the apostles may have seen that as a defeat, not understanding what was going to be accomplished there. Peter defends Jesus in the garden with his sword to stop what's going on. But this was part of God's plan. The cross is the instrument of Jesus' victory. I'm going to thank Phil for going through some of the passages here, and I won't bother to comment on them because he made a good point about the love of God being illustrated in the cross. But John 3.16 was one of the passages that he suggested. And Romans 5.8, another one that Phil read this morning, suggesting that, in the cross, what we see is the love of God.

1 John 4 also read by Phil a little bit earlier this morning as we were contemplating the Lord's sacrifice in preparation for partaking of the Lord's Supper. When God gave His Son, it's talking about putting Jesus on the cross. And that was a manifestation, an exhibition of divine love. But the cross is where love and mercy meet because it's through the cross that God can extend mercy to us and not have to provide us with justice, which is what we deserve as a result of our sins. Think about that concept that love and mercy are perfectly joined together in that death, that sacrifice on the cross. But the risen Savior rules. We esteemed Him. Stricken. That's an interesting word. When was the...

The last time you used the word stricken in any other context other than maybe reading from Isaiah chapter 53. That's just not an English word that we use very much. And so it stands out in the stanza as being the connection to Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But the risen Savior rules. In Acts, the second chapter in that sermon on the day of Pentecost, Luke records the comments of Peter. And Peter says in verse 34, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. That all the house of Israel know therefore for certain that God has made him both Lord, one who has authority to command, and Christ, the anointed King.

Of the Old Testament, this Jesus whom you crucified. Jesus was raised from the dead and was made to rule. In Psalm 89 and verse 23, another psalm that I believe is messianic, the writer says, I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes in verse 25, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Jesus is ruling and he is crushing his foes under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. In Hebrews 2, verse 14, there's an interesting statement there that has to be understood according to the meaning of the words that are used there. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. The word destroy there has to be understood in the sense of bringing to ruin, essentially defeating, not annihilating or causing someone to pass out. The devil still is at work. He still exists.

But as far as his power is concerned, the end has been foreseen. Death will be destroyed. He's the one who has the power of death. But in the resurrection, Christ will have the victory. And so Hebrews 2.14 talks about the victor, the conqueror, as he emerged from the grave as the first fruits of those who would follow in the general resurrection. Jesus is the conqueror. And the last two lines of this verse, interesting, I don't know if we are making this connection, but in 2 Corinthians, the second chapter, in verses 14 and 15, Paul makes an allusion there, I'm pretty confident, to the Roman triumph that might be granted to a general, a Roman general, who had had some noteworthy campaigns or who had won some great war with...

Some enemy out in the provinces.

And the triumph was a once-in-a-lifetime honor. The general would be in a chariot drawn by white horses. And to that chariot sometimes would be tied significant captives, maybe the king or generals, other generals that had been defeated. And flowers would be on the streets, and the aroma of the flowers would contribute to the whole experience of the triumph. He would then ride through the streets of Rome in this triumph, while the people of Rome gave him honor and praised him for his accomplishment. And in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul talks about that very thing when he says, But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fruit. Fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ.

God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. This victory march continues till the day every eye and heart shall see him. You know, that Roman triumph, it would end. It was probably a relatively brief thing in terms of a person's lifespan. But what the writer here is saying is that we continue to be led in this victory march, that every day you and I as Christians are living faithful to the Lord. We are essentially evidence of his triumph. And that lasts until the day, as he says, every eye and heart shall see him. Well, verse four, by the way, did I mention that I am using the 12 verse edition of this song?

I don't know any verse, any edition that has 12 verses. This is the last verse, the one that we sang. So Spirit come, put strength in every stride, give grace for every hurdle, that we may run with faith to win the prize of a servant good and faithful. As saints of old still line the way, retelling triumphs of His grace, we hear their calls and hunger for the day, when with Christ we stand. Glory. And I think the summary of this verse is basically the achieving of glory. The Holy Spirit empowers us as we believe the revealed Word of God. I'm going to share with you two verses that are taken out of prayers that Paul wrote in his epistles. The first one is in Romans, the 15th chapter. In this benediction, Paul says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

So that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. So Spirit, come, put strength in every strife. The Spirit can empower us, as Paul talks about in Ephesians 3 and verse 16, that according to the riches of His glory, Paul prays on behalf of the Ephesians, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being. Now, some may conclude that that's a special work of the Holy Spirit, in some way a miraculous thing. I don't think that's what's being said here. I think the Holy Spirit works in you and works in me, in the inner man, as we understand and apply the Word of God, the revealed Word of God, revealed by the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit empowers us in the inner man, so that we can run. With faith.

And able to for every hurdle in Hebrews the 29th or the 10th chapter verse 29th verse spirit is referred to as the spirit of grace this is in the context of a warning talking about those who are leaving the Lord but I find it interesting that the Holy Spirit is described as the spirit of grace not hard to understand why it's through the spirit that we experience the grace the favor of God if it hadn't been for the revelation of the gospel we wouldn't know anything about what maybe God would do for us and the verse goes on to talk about us running a race and I think the figure changes here a little bit which frankly is a little disappointing to me but it's another figure that's used in scripture to talk about the life of a Christian not just the battle as a soldier in the Lord's army but also one who's running this race you as you'll see.

In Hebrews the 12th chapter in verse 1. The verse, that we may run with faith to win the prize, servant good and faithful. Hebrews 12 and verse 1 says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, I think that's a reference to the people who had been mentioned, some by name and others just in a general way in chapter 11. Individuals who operated by faith, who acted on their faith and accomplished great things. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. I don't believe that the Hebrew writer is saying that all of these people of the Old Testament, all those who have passed on, who have been faithful, that they're watching our lives. But I think they serve as witnesses to the fact that it is possible for us to live successfully. And again...

Reward to be approved of God as these Old Testament saints were.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The Holy Spirit enables us by empowering us in the inner man. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, I think, also makes an allusion to that same idea of pressing on, being persistent, enduring in this race. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own, he writes, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In this fourth line, he says, Run with faith to win the prize of a servant good and faithful. Does that bring a passage to your mind? Maybe it brings Matthew chapter 25, that parable of the talents, where Jesus talks about three individuals given responsibility, and then the accounting for that responsibility.

Verse 20, And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I've made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And it's said the same thing with the next man who also used the talents that had been given to him to achieve gain. Good and faithful servant.

We hear their calls and hunger for the day when we, with Christ, stand in glory. Christians hunger for their eternal reward. In 2 Corinthians, the fifth chapter, Paul writes about our bodies, describing them as tense, temporary dwellings. And that's really what they are. They're perishable. They're mortal. And we'll, at some point, shuffle off this physical coil and our spirit will await that changed body, that resurrected body. He says, for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. That's the idea of hungering or desiring intensely. If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal... may be swallowed up.

By life. It's not just that I want to eliminate this body that's weak and mortal. I'm looking forward to a better body, one that is immortal, one that is sown or reaped in honor and power. In the fifth chapter of Romans, we see the same thing. We stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We're going to be studying 2 Corinthians 4 in the auditorium class this morning. We'll be looking at this particular verse, verse 17. Because in the verse, by the way, anybody in the class who wants to write down this answer, I'm giving you the answer right here to one of the questions. But what Paul does is he takes this verse and he contrasts two things in two ways. He says this light momentary affliction, talking about the severity and the duration of the affliction that might be ours in this life, is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And so Paul says, because of that, we look to the things that are unseen, not to the things that are seen. We're looking forward to, we're hungering for the day when with Christ, we stand in glory, that eternal weight of glory.

And then finally in Colossians 3 and verse 4, Paul writes, When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

In this life...

From time to time we deal with death. The death of loved ones. The death of people that we've known over the years. And we understand that this is all temporary.

And we need not get too comfortable in these bodies because life is short and tenuous.

And it can end at any time. But what we are looking forward to is that glory that's on the other side of the end of this life.

This song is a call to action. We're engaged in a spiritual battle. It's different than physical battles. We're actually trying to recover those who have been taken captive. And the real enemy is the evil one who has made them captives through their sin. The victory of our leader, Jesus Christ, is brought before our eyes in this song. Oh, it looks like he's stricken. But then he emerges from the grave. He's the conqueror. And it is through that cross that he gains the victory for us. And we're reminded in this song of the successful finish of others in the past. Those who tell of God's grace that they've experienced. I think that's an allusion to Hebrews 11, as we noted earlier. And it gives... Gives us strength. And helps us...

Endure knowing that this is not an impossible task. This fight, this race we are running. The rich lyrics of this song make many connections to Scripture. But I want to focus on that last couple phrases in verse 4. Paul writes in Romans 2, beginning in verse 7, as he talks about the judgment. He says, To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. The Jew first and also the Greek. The Jew first and also the Greek. The Jew first and also the Greek. first and also the Greek.

With Christ in glory? Or will you suffer wrath and tribulation and distress, the fury of the Lord because of unrighteousness? What does your future look like this morning?

It doesn't look like glory. If that's not what you're anticipating, then you have the opportunity this morning through your obedience to the gospel to join the Lord's army, to be given that hope of eternal glory, the eternal weight of glory that awaits all those who serve Christ in this life. What does your future look like? If we can assist you in changing that this morning, then we want to encourage you and invite you to do so as we stand in service.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Revelation 260 through 210 from the English standard version and to the angel of the church in Laodicea, I'm in the wrong place, excuse me.

Uh And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write:

The words of the holy one, the true one who has the key of David who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open.

I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power and you, you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but lie. Behold.

I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you because you have kept my word about patient endurance.

I will keep you from this hour of trial that is coming to the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

I am coming soon, hold fast what you have so that no 214 may seize your crown.

The one who conquers.

I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Never shall He go out of it.

And I will write on Him, the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down for my God out of heaven in my own new name.

He who has an ear?

Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Hm When Jim began reading and read from the beginning of the letter to Le Odysseys, I immediately started thinking, what outline can I come up with on Le Odysseus?

But fortunately, he switched gears and read about Philadelphia, which has kind of been very helpful for me this evening.

On August the 223th of this year, the city of Los Angeles suffered an earthquake of the magnitude of 246.

Now, I don't have a good perspective or idea of exactly how bad that kind of an earthquake is, but apparently it didn't cause very much uh damage to the city of Los Angeles and some of the surrounding communities there.

But you may also be aware that this very last Thursday, September the 1150th Los Angeles suffered another earthquake.

This time, it registered a magnitude of 21210 but again, very little damage done and no injuries as far as I read uh were reported, uh a few boulders fell on a road and they move those out of the way.

But Los Angeles, the people of Los Angeles are not strangers to earthquakes.

They have uh weathered, many of them, some of them have those who have lived there for some time.

But this evening, we're going to talk about another city that also suffered a serious earthquake and that's the city of Philadelphia.

Now, for those of you who are perhaps visiting with us this evening or perhaps you are relatively new members of this congregation, I need to explain to you what we mean by Bible Lands tour.

If you book a tour of some of the Bible lands, it can be pretty expensive.

And right now, there's a lot of tension and, and violence going on over there.

So it's probably not the best time to be traveling in the Middle East at all.

But what we've done in order to accommodate those who don't want to fork over several $220 is we've gone on Bible land tours.

And so we put together a package, a bus and we also have a uh a driver and we have studied, we've traveled various places over the last several years, cities, uh areas uh on our Bible lands tour.

Much, much cheaper, low cost, not low brow, uh be, be aware of that.

And so that's what we're going to do this evening.

We're going to go on a Bible Lands tour bus and we're going to talk about Philadelphia.

Now, you may be aware that the name Philadelphia only appears twice in The New Testament, both times in revelation once in chapter one, as John is told to whom he is to write these uh this book.

And then in chapter three, in the letter that Jim read for us just a few moments ago, neither Paul nor Peter obviously then wrote a letter to the church at Philadelphia.

And Philadelphia is not mentioned anywhere in the book of Acts.

So we're going to focus our attention this evening on the letter to the p uh church at Philadelphia.

As was read by Jim just a few moments ago, the church at Philadelphia was one of the seven churches of the Roman Province of Asia that were addressed by the Lord in the Book of Revelation in chapters two and three.

And I've listed on the chart here and some of you have seen at least this chart or similar chat in times past in Bible classes on the Book of Revelation.

And in chapter three, the Lord addresses the church at Philadelphia.

Interestingly enough, it seems that each of the churches that are addressed the seven churches, each of them seem to have imbibed some of the characteristics or maybe even uh in some way, were influenced by the circumstances of the cities in which those churches were located.

And so as you read through the letters, there are things that Jesus says to the church that have some connection to the history or the background or even geography in some cases uh of the city in which that church was located and each of the letters to the churches follows a general pattern now because the churches are of various quality, varying quality.

I should say the letters are not exactly the same.

But this general template that you see in the middle of the slide is the way the letters typically proceed if there's uh that there's always a salutation in all but two cases, the salutation is directly taken from the description of the one who is in the standing in the midst of the lamp stands in chapter one, following the salutation, the identification of Christ.

As he writes this letter to the various churches.

There is, if there is any commendation, the commendation then is is made and then the Lord will move to criticism or condemnation.

Uh What needs to be changed or corrected within the church.

Counsel is given.

Repentance is typically the council is given and some specific information even beyond that, then there's a promise and also an invitation to hear.

He who has an ear.

Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches is the invitation to hear.

At the end of these letters, there's a transpo transposition in some of the first letters of these last two elements, the promise and the invitation to hear.

There are three things that are on every letter.

I know, I know your works.

The Lord says he's the one standing in the midst of the lamp stands and the lamp stands, we are told uh represent these seven churches.

He knows what's going on with the churches.

He knows their strengths, he knows their weaknesses.

The one who conquers.

That's how the promise begins to the one who conquers the Lord will do such and such and then the invitation to here.

So this evening, I want to talk about the church at Philadelphia.

The churches were in various stages of quality or I should say acceptability.

Some churches were had some good about them, but they were also uh had some weaknesses.

They were in some trouble.

Ephesus for instance, is a good example of that.

Pergamum and Thia Tyra, some churches were in grave danger, grave danger.

You ask, is there any other kind and so grave danger describes Sardis and Le Odyss.

But there were two churches that were in good shape, not suggesting that everything was perfect, but no criticism is given of those churches.

For instance, Smyrna and the church that we'll talk about tonight, the church uh at Philadelphia, they were in good shape.

I wanna talk to you a little bit about the background of Philadelphia.

That city was actually founded about 228 and 50 years or more before the birth of Jesus Christ.

And it was founded by uh a Perga minion.

I'm not sure I've got that, that word, right.

But you are familiar with the city of Perga.

And there was a king by the name of Eumenes, the second who was king of Pergamum.

And his brother Aus uh was the the next king of Pergamum.

And it is thought that Ay was the one who founded the city of Philadelphia Analist because of his loyalty and his love for his brother Eumenes was known as Philadelphus.

So you can guess why the city of uh that he founded was known as Philadelphia.

The city of Philadelphia was located about 30 miles to the east and southeast of the city of Sardis.

Another one of the seven cities that are uh noted in the book of Revelation.

Philadelphia was located located on a, a river called the Colas River.

It was a tri tributary to the Hermes River.

Uh I don't know how much that means to anybody but uh it was a city that was located toward the eastern side of the Roman province of Asia.

I mean, the Roman province, not what we call Asia or even Asia Minor.

Now, if you look at where Philadelphia is located uh on this map and uh the all seven churches are there in yellow uh highlighted script.

You'll notice that Philadelphia and Laodicea are fairly close to the areas of Phrygia and Presidia and Lycia that's important and we'll make the note a little bit later about why that's important.

But just note for the time being that they were located on the eastern side of the province of Asia.

Now, I really wanted to give you some slides of the ruins at Philadelphia.

But there's a problem.

And so what I had to do was I had to improvise.

And so I've given you some slides of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

And that's as good as it's going to get because the city of AI I'm gonna see if I can butcher this name.

Al Sahir.

The modern city is right on the site of the ancient city of Philadelphia.

And when that happens, it's often difficult to do any excavating.

And so there's been very little excavation that's been done at uh Philadelphia, the ancient site where this new city is.

So we just have to content ourselves with some of the uh buildings of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I hope you won't feel cheated.

Uh By not seeing some stone ruins.

The city was located on a important east west route.

Now, it looks a little bit more like it's going north and south.

But from the standpoint of Tros and Tarsus, it's an east west trade route.

And the city of Philadelphia being on that road on that trade route meant that the city of Philadelphia would uh be a uh a prosperous city.

It was prosperous for another reason that having to do with grapevines, we'll say more about that.

In just a few moments.

In 8017, there was uh an devastating earthquake and Philadelphia seems to have been perhaps the epicenter of this earthquake.

It destroyed Philadelphia.

It damaged heavily sardis and several other cities in the same general region.

The emperor at the time, Tiberius helped rebuild the city of Philadelphia from the National Treasury, from the Treasury of the Empire.

And in gratitude, the people of Philadelphia changed the name of the city to Neo Caesarea.

New Caesar in honor of Tiberius and his help in rebuilding the city.

Later on, the city's name would be changed again to Flavia uh in honor of Vespasian's wife.

But it seems as though neither of those names caught on with the citizens of the city.

The city would suffer aftershocks from this 8017 earthquake for quite some time after the initial earthquake.

We understand that some might suggest that the earthquake that Los Angeles suffered this week is essentially kind of an aftershock of the one that was took place in, in August and August the 12th.

The historian Strabo writes this about Philadelphia and we don't have a lot of information even from secular sources about Philadelphia and precious little uh from biblical sources.

But he writes about the city of Philadelphia.

This historian Strabo, he says the city of Philadelphia ever subject to earthquakes incessantly, the walls of the houses are cracked, different parts of the city being thus affected at different times for this reason.

But few people live in the city and most of them spend their as farmers in the country since they have a fertile soil yet 1 may be surprised that the few that they are so fond of the place when their dwellings are so insecure and one might marvel still more at those who founded the city.

In other words, this wasn't maybe a great place to build the city if it was given to earthquakes.

Um You can uh footnote see Los Angeles, but at any rate, uh the principal or I should say the area around uh Philadelphia contains soil or had soils very rich because it was in an area of volcanic eruptions over long period of time, that soil was very, very fertile for grape vines.

And so uh Philadelphia was known for its grape vines, its fine wines and uh the principal deity of Philadelphia was Dionysus.

Do you know what the Association of Dionysus was with everyday life?

He was the God of wine.

And so it's not surprising that he would be maybe the principal God, a patron god of this city.

Actually, it was Philadelphia was also the site of many temples that were dedicated to uh these uh idolatrous gods.

One commentator makes the observation that Philadelphia was sometimes called Little Athens because of the number of temples uh that existed uh in its history.

Well, maybe all that's fairly interesting, at least from a background standpoint, you can kind of get a feel for the city.

But one of the things that's very important is that Philadelphia was considered to be a missionary city.

William Ramsey describes the city of Philadelphia as a missionary city.

In his book, the seven churches.

Uh the letters to the seven churches of Asia.

It was a missionary city in the sense that it was intended to export Greek culture to the East.

You may recall from some of your historical studies that Philip of Macedon had a son by the name of Alexander, the great Alexander, the great was a pupil of Aristotle and Alexander.

The great believed that Greek culture, the Greek language, the Greek way of living, that it was far superior to anything else.

And so wherever he pushed his influence to the East all the way into India, he was essentially propagating spreading Greek culture.

Philadelphia had already been founded for that same purpose to push Greek culture to the east.

And so Ramsey makes these comments in that book that I've cited already.

He says the intention of its founder, the founder of Philadelphia was to make it a center of the Greco Asiatic civilization and a means of spreading the Greek language and manners in the eastern parts of Lydia and Phrygia.

You remember I said that Philadelphia is kind of on the eastern side of the province of Asia and it was the natural stepping off place, so to speak for the areas of Phrygia and Lisa to the east of that city.

And so Philadelphia was considered to be a missionary city exporting Greek culture.

He goes on to say it was a missionary city from the beginning, founded to promote a certain unity of spirit, customs and loyalty within the realm.

The Apostle of Hellenism in an oriental land.

That phrase the Apostle of Hellenism is usually applied to Alexander the great.

But Philadelphia was given the task.

It was intended to spread hellenism.

Greek culture to the east.

It was a successful teacher.

Before 203, the Lydian tongue had ceased to be spoken in Lydia and Greek was the only language of the country.

So Philadelphia was considered to be a missionary city.

The Greeks in general considered their language, their culture to be superior to all others.

Now, what I'd like to do is go back to the biblical text and take a look at what the Lord says to this church in the city of Philadelphia.

And I'm going to begin reading in verse eight, we've already passed the salutation and the Lord says, I know your works behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but lie behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you because you have kept my word about patient endurance.

I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

So the first thing I want to note about this church is that the Lord says I have set before you an open door.

One commentator made the observation that the word door in the New Testament is hardly ever used in a literal sense to talk about an uh an actual door.

But that most of the time, it's used in the figurative sense of some opportunity, an opening of uh uh of an opportunity.

And so when Jesus says I have set before you an open door, I really suspect that what he's talking about was an open door.

An opportunity for evangelism just like Philadelphia was considered or intended to be a missionary city for Greek culture, spreading it to the east.

So the Lord says to the church in Philadelphia, I've set an open door before you and no one can shut that door.

Now, that's interesting that the Lord does not identify what that door is, what that opportunity is.

Now, it may have been obvious to the church at Philadelphia, but perhaps not, it might have been true that the church of Philadelphia was going to have to look for the opportunity to recognize the door that had been open for them.

The Lord says earlier in that same letter that he has the key and what he opens, no one can shut and what he shuts, no one can open a key like a door is often a symbol, a symbol of the power or the ability to limit access or to limit uh to exclude uh access.

The church at Philadelphia was given an opportunity for evangelism, but I think they had to recognize that open door.

The Lord does not identify it for them in this letter.

Now, the other thing that stands out in this uh brief letter is the Lord saying I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

What does the Lord mean by you have little power?

Well, there's several possibilities.

He may have been talking about the size of the congregation that it wasn't a big church that were, there were few members and as a result, their power wasn't very great.

It was little.

It may be that he was talking about the makeup of the church, the demographics of the congregation.

It may have been that the economic status of the members in the community of Philadelphia was lower.

They may have been of a lower class.

You may recall in your studies of First Corinthians in chapter one, that Paul makes the observation that not many rich, not many noble, not many of the upper classes were responding to the gospel.

It was primarily those who were of the lower classes of slaver, the slaves and those uh who uh were not as uh blessed economically as others in the community.

It may have been that the Lord was talking about their low social status, that the influence that they might have on others because of that status would be limited.

But he says to them, I know that you have but little power and yet he says you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

And I think in that sentence, there is a very important principle and that is that size or numbers of members or even the economic status of those who are members.

That that's not the critical issue.

That's not the criterium for success.

Success is judged by faithfulness.

This congregation has grown significantly over the last several years.

We began back in 2006.

And I think we were around 60 members at that time.

And now the membership runs well over 150 or more.

But what makes this congregation faithful is not its numbers.

I don't know that the congregation here is any stronger now with 150 members than it was when we only had 60.

The issue is not numbers.

And I think that's an important principle for us to embrace because I, I have seen so often people who seem to be enamored with numbers.

The thing that's important is how many people have we baptized?

In such and such a point, a period of time or how large is this congregation compared to another congregation?

What's the contribution level of this congregation compared to other congregations in the area or across the nation?

I know that you have but little power.

This probably wasn't a big church.

It certainly was limited in its power as the Lord says, yet, you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I'm afraid that sometimes we think of churches only in terms of size and a good church is a big church.

I've known some big churches that were very weak.

Their members in some cases were not very committed, not very faithful to the Lord.

And I've known some congregations that were small but they were strong congregations.

The members were faithful dedicated Christians.

And what the Lord's looking for are those who will not deny his name, who will keep his word even if there's just a few of them in a congregation.

And I'm not placing a premium on small congregations.

I'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing to grow.

I think we ought to baptize as many people as we possibly can.

But what the Lord is looking for is disciples, not names on a church roll, not the numbers of members that sometimes people tout when they talk about the strength of various congregations.

He says, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I know, it's not obvious in the English.

But in the Greek, the word kept, there is a word that refers to something in the past that's happened.

The heiress tense heis indicative.

And I wonder if the Lord had some specific incident in mind?

We don't really know that, but I would suggest to you that we need to be constant in this faithfulness to the Lord.

And, and I believe that's what he says in verse 10, because you've kept my word about patient endurance.

The Lord had said, you need to continue to be faithful and they had listened to that and they had kept his word patiently.

Jesus said in John 14 verse 23 if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The metric for loving the Lord is keeping his word.

I know this in this day and age when people preach that we need to obey the Lord's commands, you're you're often accused of legalism that we're all focused on doing, doing, doing.

But Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

Jesus said, that's the manifestation of love is that you keep what he has said, why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do the things that I say in Luke six verse 46.

This letter will end with the promise of a new name and I think the concept of the new name is a sign of honor and possession.

It would strike the the Philadelphians, I think pretty uh pretty clearly because they were familiar with the concept of new names for the city itself.

The letter in revelation is written to a church, but opportunities for evangelism are not only of a collective nature as a congregation, we certainly need to be looking for open doors.

We need to be looking for opportunities to teach others as a collective group and the elders need to lead in that but open doors, I think should be present or present for all of us.

And I want you to think for just a moment about people that, you know, people that you come in contact with.

Are there doors that are being opened by the Lord that we're not taking advantage of that.

I'm not taking advantage of Jesus says I've put an open door before you.

He doesn't identify the Philadelphians had to look for that door.

And so do we and that door will probably be represented by the people that we know and that we have contact with.

I wonder if as individuals, we're taking advantage of opportunities to teach others.

Sometimes I feel bad that I've not taken advantage of opportunities.

Sometimes we don't know if the opportunity is there until we test the door and see if it will open.

I want to share with you a passage from Colossians, the fourth chapter, the Apostle Paul toward the end of that, epistle writes this.

He says, in verse two, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, he says, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious season with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Paul says to the Colossians and he's writing from Rome, he's under house arrest there in Rome as Luke records in the last part of acts.

And he says, pray for me, pray for us that there will be open doors.

Do you pray for that?

Do we pray that God will give us opportunities?

But I'll tell you what if He gives us the open door, we've got to step through, got to take advantage of those opportunities.

Philadelphia is only, is one of only two churches that are addressed in revelation that were given no criticism.

Smyrna is the other one but everything to Philadelphia is positive.

There's no uh criticism or correction that seems to be required.

But the Lord said, I know that you have but little power.

Do you remember the the spies that were sent into the land of Canaan when the people of Israel came up uh from the south and they camped there at the southern portion of Canaan and they sent 12 spies in and of the 1210 of them came back and they gave a negative report, not about the land.

They said the land is a, is a rich land and they even brought back some samples of some of the produce of the land.

But they also said the people of the land are giants and they live in fortified cities.

And we, we were like grasshoppers in their site and in ours.

And I think we need to be aware of the grasshopper complex fact of the matter is as congregations go and I mean, uh, uh churches in general.

I'm not talking just about the local congregations, churches of Christ.

I'm talking about religious groups just in the city of Huntsville or a across the state of Alabama.

We are small.

There are churches even in Huntsville that have thousands of members.

They have huge plants that is, they have facilities that probably cost millions and millions of dollars.

And if we're not careful, we'll begin to see us as ourselves as just grasshoppers.

What can we do?

We're small compared to those folks, but don't forget what the Lord said to Philadelphia.

I know that you have but little power yet you have kept my name.

They've been faithful and it doesn't make any difference.

Whether we're one of the smallest groups in Huntsville.

The issue is whether we're being faithful to the Lord.

Are we being a good influence in the communities in which we live?

Are we stepping through the doors of opportunity for evangelism teaching others?

When we look at the institutions around us, the religious groups around us, what people measure success with is money, influence in political ways or community ways size and in all of those things, we are dwarfed by comparison.

But I don't think the Lord is worried about that.

I think what he wants is disciples who are dedicated to following him is that you can we describe ourselves that way?

I certainly hope that it is the case.

Church of Philadelphia had little power, but they kept the word of the Lord and not denied his name despite opposition as we read a little bit earlier in the letter, they were being opposed by a synagogue of Satan.

I think that was a reference to a Jewish synagogue and they were getting some opposition from these unbelieving jews.

But this church had stood firm even.

So, what's your situation with the Lord?

Have you been bought with the blood of the lamb?

The Lord said to him who conquers?

I will give a new name.

You'll be a pillar in my temple.

He'll belong to me.

And that's exactly what happens when we obey the gospel.

We become Christians.

We belong to the Lord.

We've been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ acts 20 verse 28.

Makes that observation, we've been redeemed, bought out of the bondage of sin by the blood, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Do you belong to Jesus Christ?

I didn't ask if you've been baptized.

I'm asking, do you still belong to Jesus Christ?

Sometimes people are baptized and then over time they begin to kind of wander and they stop keeping the name of the Lord.

Stop loving the Lord by obeying his commandments.

Do you still belong to the Lord?

By virtue of the fact that you're following him, hearing the voice of the shepherd and following the shepherd.

If we can assist you this evening in becoming part of God's blood bought people, we certainly want to encourage you to take that step.

If you need to repent of things in your life, things that are of a private nature, then you need to pray to God and confess your sins, ask for forgiveness.

God will forgive.

That's his promise if we'll repent.

But if you've done things, if you're not living like a disciple, if you've denied the name of the Lord, if you've been embarrassed by the fact that you are a Christian, then you need to make some changes.

And you may need in fact to confess before the saints and the saints will pray with you, the elders will pray with you if we can assist you in any way in these ways.

Tonight, we encourage you as we stand and sing to invite you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

But once again, good morning.

If you're visiting with us this morning, we are very grateful for your presence.

We hope that you feel comfortable among us and that you are being encouraged and instructed in the things that we do.

We're grateful for your presence here and certainly want to welcome you to come back as you have opportunity.

You're always welcome here.

It has been almost a full month since the last time I preached in this pulpit, Debbie and I were gone through three weeks in Africa and last week I was given grace by the elders who didn't make me preach the day after I came back from a long trip.

And so uh as is sometimes the case with people who need to be retrained frequently.

I'm not totally sure how all this works.

I think I'm supposed to speak until about 12 and then we have our bible class after that.

Is that right, Steve?

Yes, Steve said, yes.

Uh don't trust the I want to direct your attention to John the ninth chapter.

John chapter nine is a fascinating chapter.

It is the story of a man who was born blind and has been blind all his life and Jesus heals him.

The conversation that develops between this man and the Pharisees who don't want to acknowledge that Jesus has performed a miracle is fascinating, but that's not really our uh our uh focus this morning.

I really wanna talk just about the very beginning of the chapter.

The text says in John chapter nine verse one, as he passed by Jesus, did, he saw a man blind from birth?

And his disciples asked him, rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind.

Jesus response was it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

What an interesting question.

Here's a guy who's blind from birth and what the disciples ask is who sinned?

Somebody must have sinned because it appears obvious that the disciples equated personal suffering of the kind that this man had experienced all his life to be due to personal sin.

Somebody's sin.

If he's suffering, somebody must have sinned.

It's an interesting comment or question I should say when they ask who sent this man?

Since he was congenitally blind, he would have had to have sinned while he was still in his mother's womb.

You may find that rather astonishing that anybody would even ask that question.

But there were some rabbis who reason from Genesis 2522 where Esau and Jacob are in the womb of their mother and they're tussling with each other and they argued that that was evidence that sometimes people sin before they were even born.

I don't think the Bible is teaching that, but that's where they came uh from.

Uh That's where that idea came from.

But Jesus denies both alternatives.

It wasn't this man, it wasn't his parents.

Jesus doesn't talk specifically about that question of suffering and sin but merely notes that this was an opportunity instead for the works of God to be seen.

Well, that's the first story that I wanted you to think about the question who sin asked by the disciples.

But there's another story that I would also like for you to consider.

It's in all three of the synoptic gospels.

In mark the 10th chapter, it is the story of a young man we're told in other passages that he's a rich ruler and he comes running to Jesus and he kneels before Jesus and then he asks the question, uh good master, what must I do in order to inherit eternal life?

Now, there's a lot could be said about that from the standpoint of salvation and grace.

But of course, as we work through the story, we find that this is a man of good moral character.

He'd been keeping the commandments of the old law all his life, he tells Jesus in response to that uh instruction.

But when Jesus instructs him to sell all that he has and distribute to the poor and then come follow Jesus.

He becomes very sad, extremely sorrowful.

The text says, and the reason was he had a lot of stuff.

Luke says he was extremely wealthy and Jesus is telling him to give it all away.

And so he goes away and Jesus then remarks to the disciples about how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.

And that astonishes the disciples.

Look at Mark chapter 216, verse 211 through 210.

It's on the screen.

The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them Children, how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of God.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.

And they were exceedingly astonished, it says and said to him, then who can be saved?

And that question suggests that in their view, the rich were probably the most likely to be in the favor of God and be saved.

And if the rich can only be saved with difficulty, then what about the rest of us?

What about those who are farther down on the social ladder?

You may not think these two stories are particularly related, but they actually are.

And the connection between the two of them is that both of them illustrate a misconception of the disciples coming from two different directions.

But the same misconception in the first story, blindness must be the result of sin.

So suffering is the result of personal sin.

In the second story, physical wealth must be the evidence of God's favor.

You know, if the rich can't be saved, then what's gonna happen to the rest of us?

In both cases, here's the connection, the disciples judged the spiritual condition of an individual by the wrong standard.

And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning.

I want to talk to you about how it is that sometimes people judge spiritual condition by the wrong standard.

We're talking about the disciples of Jesus in these two stories.

But I want to suggest to you that that is a common misconception today that you can actually say something about somebody's spiritual condition based on their general physical circumstances in this world.

You know, that wasn't a new view in the first century.

If you were to go back to the Old Testament and open your Bible to the Book of Job, you'd find out that there were three friends of job who came and they had exactly the same misconception.

If you're not familiar with the Book of Job or the story of Job, let me rehearse just very quickly.

A few facts that will help you put some of the things that we're going to read and say in context in the very beginning of the Book of Job, the Sons of God are gathered and income Satan.

And the Bible says in chapter one of job and in verse one, that job was blameless and upright one who feared God and turned away from evil.

And in verse eight, God asks Satan, have you considered my servant job?

And look at the praise that job receives from God, have you considered my servant job?

That there is none like him on the earth?

Can you imagine if God would say that about you or about me?

There's nobody like Zach.

And Olivia says, yeah, I know.

But if, if God said, there's nobody like Zach, nobody on the earth like him, that's pretty high praise.

And that's what he says about Joe.

Well, Satan says, well, the reason that He serves you is that you protect Him, you built this edge around him.

You've given him great wealth, take away his wealth and He'll curse you to your face and God permits Satan then to afflict job from the standpoint of taking away his possessions, even his Children die in the ensuing persecution by Satan.

But in chapter two, that's chapter one, in chapter two, there's another conversation between God and Satan and God notes to Satan, you know, you, you did all this to job and he didn't react the way you said he would.

And Satan's response is, yeah, he didn't have any skin in the game.

You touch him personally and then it'll become real to him.

I'm paraphrasing that's not even the new living translation.

And so God says, all right, you can touch job but you can't take his life.

And in chapter two, we find out that job is afflicted with some terrible sickness.

He is miserable.

And you, as you read through the book, you'll understand that uh it is a very serious condition.

Well, job has lost virtually everything.

He is now suffering personally physically.

But help is on the way because three of his friends come as the text says to comfort him and to show sympathy for him.

Tell you what if you've got friends like Faz Bilad and Zohar, you don't need any enemies because when they come and they begin talking to Joe first, they just sit with him for seven days.

Nobody says anything.

Then job engages in a soliloquy and bemoans, the fact that he was born, that he was born alive, that he didn't die at birth.

And then the friends start in and in order to appreciate what they say to him, you need to understand how they are thinking and they're thinking just like the disciples of Jesus did much later in history.

They encourage job to repent of his sins.

And when he doesn't confess any sins, they eventually will begin to assign sins to him to accuse him of things that they had no idea were true or not.

The thinking of the friends went something like this.

Human suffering is always and that's a key word.

Here, human suffering is always the result of personal sin.

And the suffering is also in proportion to the sin, the seriousness of the sin.

So if somebody's sinning a lot, then they're going to suffer a lot.

And so the friends made that direct connection between personal sin and personal suffering.

And here's their friend job sitting on the ash heap suffering greatly horribly.

And so the only conclusion that makes sense to them is that job must be guilty of some terrible sins.

And so they start in on him and they start telling him you need to repent.

If you'll just repent, God will turn and he'll bless you.

I'm convinced that job also shared that perspective.

I think that's why in this book, he is so confounded, so confused because he knows that he has not sinned in any way that would have brought on this kind of suffering.

I mean, who suffered like job and yet he's suffering.

If he didn't hold the same view as the friends, then I don't think that would have been the same consternation through the book that you read.

In the words of job.

I could tell you what the friends thought i in greater detail, but I'm just gonna let you hear it from their own lips.

So let's just quickly look at a handful of quotations from these friends of job in the book.

There are three cycles of speeches, each of the friends speaks and then job responds and they all speak in the same order.

We'll use the same order in our, in our slides.

And uh the third cycle then job engages in some speeches and so on.

So let's begin with Elis.

Elis says, remember who that was innocent, ever perished or where were the upright cut off?

As I have seen those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

Hili says innocent people don't suffer when people suffer.

It's because they sin.

He makes that connection.

And Bild dad follows suit.

Bild dad says, can papyrus grow where there's no marsh can reeds flourish where there is no water while yet in flower and not cut down they wither before any other plant.

Such are the paths of all who forget God, the hope of the Godless shall perish.

There's the refrain, sinners are gonna suffer.

Sinners are gonna suffer.

They always suffer because of their sins.

Zohar is the third friend to speak.

And he says to job.

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away and let not injustice.

Dwell in your tents surely, then you will lift up your face without blemish, you'll be secure and will not fear that uh that and I think I've got uh part of a sentence missing there.

I apologize.

Dropping down to verse 212.

He says, but the eyes of the wicked will fail all way of escape will be lost to them.

And their hope is to breathe their last so so far says the same thing, the wicked are going to suffer.

They always suffer because of their sin.

Well, let's go back to Zoar, excuse me, faz.

And he says in chapter 212, verse 216 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

So the wicked man, all he does is just suffer because of his sins.

Bild dad says, indeed the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of his fire does not shine.

My understanding is that in Israelite homes, there was always a lamp that was kept burning.

And the idea of that lamp being put out meant calamity, catastrophe for that family or for that individual.

And Bilad says the wicked, his light gets put out and soar finishes up by saying, do you not know this from of old since man was placed on earth?

That the exulting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless.

But for a moment though his height mount up to the heavens and his head reached to the clouds.

He will perish forever like his own dung.

Those who have seen him will say, where is he?

And so they just keep repeating this refrain.

The reason you're suffering job is because you're a sinner and you must have sinned terribly.

Now at some point, a little bit later on, uh certainly by the third cycle of speeches.

They begin to acknowledge that sometimes the wicked prosper for a while.

But they'll keep saying, but it's all gonna be swept away.

But I love the speech of Job in chapter 16 in chapter 224.

Job tells his friends what I have seen doesn't fit your template.

It doesn't fit your argument in Job.

Chapter 224 verses seven through 216.

And I've gotten so excited.

I haven't gotten to my text yet.

So let me go to Job chapter 21 and verse seven and Job says, this is what I have seen.

He says, why do the wicked live reach old age and go mighty in power.

Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes, their houses are safe from fear and no rod of God is upon them.

Their bull breeds without faith, their cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send out their little boys like a flock and their Children dance.

They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

They spend their days in prosperity and in peace, they go down to shield or the grave.

They say to God, depart from us.

We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

What is the Almighty that we should serve Him?

And what profit do we get if we pray to him?

So we're talking about wicked people here.

They, they don't want to have anything to do with God and job says, but you know what?

They seem to live pretty good lives.

Everything seems to be going along swimmingly for them.

Drop down to verse 17.

How often is it?

He's talking to Bild dad.

Now how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity comes upon them that God distributes pains in his anger.

The friends were saying that the wicked always suffer and jobs saying really, it doesn't seem that way.

Drop down to verse 27.

And the same chapter job says, behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.

For you say, where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?

In other words, they're saying the wicked really don't prosper and job responds.

Have you not asked those who travel the roads and do you not accept their testimony that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

Who declares to his face and who repays him for what he has done when he's carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.

The clouds of the valley are sweet to him.

All mankind follows after him and those who go before him are innumerable.

How then will you comfort me with empty nothings, there's nothing left of your answers but falsehood.

And so job says, I'm looking around at society and your argument, your theology doesn't work because sometimes the wicked seem to prosper.

They don't suffer in, uh the same amount is their sins.

Now, job's gonna say some pretty rash things in the course of his discussion with the friends, partly because he assumed it was God who had uh caused his suffering.

And of course, he doesn't understand what exactly happened in chapters.

One and two.

We're privy to that conversation.

Job was not well, like job.

We need to realize that we can't judge our spiritual condition or judge the spiritual spiritual condition of others on the basis of their circumstances in life.

Job's suffering was not the result of his personal sin.

We understand that because we're privy to the conversation that chapters one and two, the scriptures provide us with a number of other examples of people who suffer but not as a result of their own sin, but as a result of the sins of others.

For instance, you may recall the story of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba.

David committed adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba.

And when she conceives a child, she's pregnant.

Now, he calls Uriah back from the battle where the army is out uh fighting against the Ammonites and hoping that Uriah will sleep with his wife and Uriah will think that the child that will subsequently be born is his own child.

Well, Uriah doesn't do that.

And so David plots his death with Joe Uriah was sacrificed and battled through the plotting of David and Joab, his death was not the result of his personal sin.

God didn't strike him down because Uriah was some terrible character.

He died because of the iniquity of David, the king who had taken his wife.

You're perhaps also familiar with the story of Naboth.

There's King Ahab and he wants nba's vineyard but Naboth won't sell and Naboth is within his right not to sell.

Jezebel says, don't you worry, I'll take care of this.

And so she sets in motion a plot where the men of the city of Jezreel, where Naboth live, they plot against Naboth and he is stoned and incidentally so were his sons.

The vineyard is free.

Now, Ahab is told Naboth suffered and died at the hands of wicked men.

His suffering was not the result of his personal sin.

That's in First Kings chapter 21.

Moving to the New Testament, the apostle Paul suffered greatly, not due to his personal sin, but in fact, because of his preaching of the gospel, he talks about that in Second Corinthians, the 11th chapter verse 23 to 16.

As he recounts all the things that he has suffered as a result of his apostleship.

His preaching of the gospel.

Paul suffered not because of his personal sin but because of the opposition of wicked men to the preaching of the gospel.

The ultimate example of course is Jesus.

Uh I found it interesting John, I think went through several passages that I went through as I was looking at this, I'm going to cite first Peter two verses 21 through 23.

But that passage says he was innocent.

And the passage in First Peter three talks about him being the just who died for the unjust cited also by John Jesus is the ultimate example of one who suffered, not because of his own sin.

He was tempted in all points like as we yet without sin, he was for 12 says, but he was killed by wicked men.

I asked that the story of the rich man and Lazarus be read from Luke 16 because it is another illustration of the fact that you can't look at somebody's circumstances in this life and know what they're going to be or where they're going to be in the next life beyond the grave.

We have this story of the rich man who seems to be blessed by God.

He has wealth.

He eats well.

He has apparently a nice place to live and there's poor Lazarus.

He's a beggar, he's sick, the dogs are licking his sores and they both die well, if you were to look at that story without knowing the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, who would you have guessed might be the righteous man that would be comforted by God or given God's favor in eternity.

You might guess the rich man after all he'd been blessed by God, at least ostensibly before he died.

And yet it's contrary, isn't it?

Everything's changed?

Now, the rich man finds himself in torment whereas poor Lazarus is being comforted in the company of Abraham.

I wanna make three quick observations about sin and suffering.

And the first observation is that suffering or illness can in fact be the direct consequence of a specific sin.

Now, what I've been saying is that the disciples and the friends of job believe that suffering was always the result of personal sin.

And that's the problem because you can't make that connection that definitively.

But we also do need to acknowledge that sometimes suffering is the result of specific sin.

Give you a couple of examples, individuals who use recreational drugs, whether you're talking, talking about cocaine or meth or fentaNYL, sometimes they destroy their lives, sometimes they lose their lives.

Certainly they suffer as a result of sinful choices.

They become slaves to a substance, drunkenness.

As a result of alcohol use often brings suffering to the one who's drunken and incidentally also to others who might happen across this person's path.

Sometimes suffering or illness is the direct consequence of a specific sin.

But we can't say that it always is.

And that's what the friends were saying.

That's what the disciples apparently believed.

The second observation is that it is an error to conclude that all suffering is the result, direct result of personal sin.

I'm suffering.

Someone says God must be punishing me.

How do you know that?

Because it's not always the case.

We've given several examples of people who suffered at the hands of others, not because of their own sins, but because of the sins of others.

We live in an interconnected world.

And by that, I simply mean that what I do affects other people and what they do affects me.

We don't live on an island by ourselves, unaffected by what anybody else does.

And we need to recognize that sometimes suffering, even sometimes illness is the result of the actions of others, including their sins.

In Ecclesiastes.

The ninth chapter verse 11, the writer said again, I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches, to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge.

But time and chance happened to them all.

We might expect that certain people are going to uh succeed but time and chance things we don't control, sometimes they turn things around and sometimes we suffer as a result.

And the third observation I want to make and, and I think this is very significant is that as, as Christians, we really need to expect to suffer sometimes not because of our sins, but because we did what was right, Jesus would say in Matthew, the fifth chapter verses 10 through 12, at the conclusion of the beatitudes there.

He says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

People who are doing the right things, sometimes they suffer not because of personal sin, but in fact, because of the very opposite.

Blessed are you, Jesus continued when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Apostle Paul would make the observation in second Timothy three and verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ.

Jesus will be persecuted will be persecuted.

If we're not being persecuted, it may be that we're not really living a Godly life.

And I'm not suggesting that Paul is saying that we're going to be persecuted constantly.

But I am saying that if we live the life that God wants us to live, if we live a Godly life, there will be storms in our lives, there'll be persecution.

We talked about that about a month or so ago in first Peter, the fourth chapter in verse 16, Peter said, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Peter suggests that we are going to sometimes suffer as Christians for doing what is right.

And so we need to understand that we can't judge our spiritual condition, faithful, unfaithful by whether things are going along well, or whether we're being persecuted because sometimes Christians are persecuted for doing what's right and sometimes wicked people get along just fine and they seem to prosper.

If one's physical circumstances are not the correct metric or standard, what is the right standard?

Well, it's simple.

I love the gospel of John from the standpoint that John writes in a very simple way.

It's not complicated and, and uh uh all full of phrases like Paul's writing.

And so John sometimes just says it so clearly.

He says in first John 37 little Children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

You want to know who's righteous.

Don't look at the bank account.

Don't look at whether they've got a big house, don't look at whether physically they seem to be prospering.

How are they living?

That's the metric in John, the seventh chapter verse 24 Jesus said, do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment, I believe verse 24 is actually in a different context than what we're talking about.

But the principle is that we don't judge things just by appearance, but that we need to use the right kind of judgment.

That's the point I'm making about our lives about our spiritual condition.

We don't judge by outward appearances.

We need to use the right standard.

I think it's easy to fall into the air the error of using life's circumstances to judge spiritual status.

I've known Christians who, if something bad happened, bad happened to them, something that they really didn't want, something that they saw as a, as an obstacle or a barrier.

Immediately they begin to think God's punishing me.

And what I want you to see this morning is that, that's not necessarily true.

Now, it could be, God has disciplined sinners.

But the way to figure that out is to take a look into the perfect law of liberty and see whether or not we're living the way we should be living.

Not just whether something bad's happening to me or whether something good's happening to me.

The fact of the matter is there are others who believe that if they're doing well physically and financially, then they must be in God's favor.

The disciples thought that that's why they said who then can be saved.

When Jesus said, it's very hard for difficult for rich people to get into heaven and they thought, but surely those are the people that would get in.

First, Jesus was making the observation that's not necessarily true.

I don't think being rich is a sin, but having wealth is not a sign of divine favor.

And that's a truth that I think we need to embrace in our society and our culture.

Every time I go to Africa, I'm reminded of the tremendous blessings and privileges that we have.

And I don't think it's by accident.

I think there's something going on that, that have promoted this kind of life a better life.

But the fact of the matter is it's easy for us to begin to think that because things are going along well and we're blessed so much that we must be in God's favor and that's not the standard.

So how can we appraise our spiritual condition?

Are we walking with God?

Are we living to glorify God and all that?

We do?

One's general circumstances can be deceiving.

We can be sailing through life, enjoying lots of physical advantages and yet be in grave spiritual danger.

In the story of Luke 16, I would suspect that the rich man was very satisfied with his life.

Everything was good.

He ate well, he was clothed well, he lived well and he died a spiritual pauper.

What is your relationship to the Lord?

Are you separated from him by your sins?

That's what the Bible says is the consequence of sin that it separates us from.

God destroys a relationship that we could have or are you part of God's spiritual family?

Because the truth of the matter is that if you feel that you're separated from God because of your sins, you haven't been forgiven of your sins, God has provided the way that you can have that relationship back, that you can become a part of his spiritual family, part of his church.

That group of people called out of the world to live a different life, to become new people.

And if you need to do that this morning, then we certainly want to invite you to take advantage of that.

If you're not a Christian, you need to obey the gospel.

And the Bible is very clear about what that involves.

You can see it on the chart.

But if you're a Christian and you've been kind of feeling like everything's going pretty well, but you haven't been walking the way you should in terms of the way we live, then you need to make some changes.

Don't use the wrong standard to judge your spiritual condition.

Look into God's law.

How are you walking?

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, not just those who claim, not just those who feel good about themselves, the proof is in the pudding.

I can't believe.

I just said that that's such a trite idiom.

But what it says is get to the real matter, get to the real test.

And if you find yourself wanting this morning, then we want to encourage you to do something about it.

We encourage you to do it now as we stand and sing to invite you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Siota

This sermon includes performances of:

• God Will Take Care of You (Author: Civilla D. Martin, copyright 1904, public domain)
• The Rock of My Heart (Author: Matthew Bassford, Composer: Glenda Schales, copyright 2000, permission granted by Bassford family estate)

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Before I begin, I just want to say a couple of things.

One, if you think back to uh for the members here or whoever was here last week will harris' sermon about the body and ligaments.

I just want to say a public thank you to all the members here who have been the ligaments that are holding me together for about the past year or so.

Um I appreciate a lot of you more than I could ever say.

Um Second thing while I'm up here, I also want to give a plug for the elders.

Um If you don't know how great uh the five elders are here, just come see me, come talk to me and I can give you some personal experiences uh that might help you.

Uh But just wanted to say those two things before, before we start.

OK, got my notes up.

So I just want to for a little bit talk about some things that have been rattling around in my head.

It's kind of dangerous to let you into my head.

It's kind of like an episode of welcome to my world.

Welcome to my weird mind, but I think you'll find that a lot of you have had maybe the same thoughts, um, you know, thoughts that come to mind.

Why did my faithful Christian friend die in that car wreck?

Why did she die young?

You know, why did my mom die from cancer?

Why are so many of my friends and family falling away from the Lord?

You know, why am I going through such a hard time right now in my life?

Why do I pray for the same things over and over and over, you know, same things.

Maybe I change it up a little bit.

Um But this doesn't seem like God is listening.

So I've been wrestling with those thoughts and I know that God's word has helped me and can help me continue to help me.

And so hopefully, what we talk about today can help maybe some of you who are wrestling with thoughts like that.

But the answer that I've found an answer that I've found is that God will provide, like Alex said, we're gonna be talking a little bit about God providing for us and we're gonna be based in Philippians chapter four verse 19 Philippians 419 I believe on the screen.

It's in the ESV, it says, and my God will supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

So I don't wanna look at this verse, lay a foundation to show how God provides.

Look at a few real life examples and that even if it doesn't seem like it, God's still providing for you.

So let's break this first down as we start, it says, my God, that's what Paul says.

Paul says, it's his God.

We can say the same thing, my God, each one of us can say that this relationship that we have with God is very personal.

He's mine.

He's my God.

He's not some far off divine being that he just kind of spun the world into existence and then stepped back and doesn't care about us.

My relationship with God is as personal as it gets.

That's a phrase that I've heard Jared say up here when he's talking about the Lord's supper.

It's so personal. Jesus.

God sent Jesus, he died for us.

He sent his son for me.

That's personal.

And he because of that, he's my God and he adopts me as his child.

So my God will supply.

It's not, he might, it's not, I think He will.

It's my God will supply.

There's no room for doubt.

You can hang your hat on the fact that God will supply all you need.

It's not just some, you know, a few or just most of our needs.

God will supply all of our needs according to his riches, makes me think of Ephesians chapter three verse 20.

It says God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think God's provisions for us are endless he's so rich that we, you know, it's, it's above all that we can comprehend.

And so I want to go back for a second on all needs a little footnote there.

I think we need to remember that.

What we think our needs are and what God knows our needs are can be two very different things and we'll talk about that a little bit later as well.

So thinking about this verse, my God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Well, what we just read Psalm 153 that's a really good parallel.

The Lord is my shepherd again, very personal.

He's my shepherd.

I shall not want, you know, all my needs will be supplied.

Matthew Henry in his commentary on this.

Psalm says more is implied than is expressed.

It's not only I shall not want, but I shall be supplied with whatever I need.

And if I have not everything I desire, I may conclude it is either not fit for me or not good for me or I shall have it in due time.

So Matthew Henry is saying, if it doesn't seem like my needs are being supplied, it's either because what I think I need what I'm asking God for isn't right.

It's not good or it's just not time.

So if it doesn't, doesn't seem like your needs are being supplied right now, just remember that stop and think, you know, why might that be again in the psalm.

You prepare a table before me, you anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over.

So there's these things, God doesn't just prepare a plate for you.

You don't just have your place with your plate.

You have a whole table, a whole spread of food.

You see in the background that cornucopia of just food spilling out.

That's kind of what I think about out of his riches.

God prepares a table for us.

It's not thrown together at the last minute.

He has prepared this beforehand.

He's, he's thought this out and he's prepared a table for you.

He anoints your head with oil.

That's a, that's a gesture of special favor.

We're God's special guests at this table that He's prepared for us.

And our cup runs over.

Going back to the Philippians 419.

His riches.

Our cup is running over.

I think of the Beverly Hillbilly song.

It says God uh sorry, it says they, you'll find a heaping helping of hospitality there at the Beverly Hillbillies.

So that's, that's kind of how God works.

He heaps it in your cup and your cup runs over.

So that is what God does for us.

So we're actually gonna sing a song here.

We've been talking about God supplying our needs.

So God's gonna take care of us.

So we're gonna sing.

God will take care of you.

Thank you.

Be not this man time.

We need this way of right?

You rude days of when danger.

Hey now, hey, create, OK, you or you may on OK?

Nothing you God will say.

Yeah, yeah, no matter now, right?

Mean where you want now.

Yeah, you and yeah.

So God has promised us some things.

Yes, he will supply our needs.

But I wanna look at two promises that I find in scriptures that hopefully will help us.

When thinking about this first one is that God will never ask more of us than we can handle.

Look over at Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew chapter 25 I think we're all familiar with this parable, the parable of the talents.

Matthew 25 verse 14 to 30.

We won't read all of it.

But you see there's this master and there's three servants and he leaves to each one of them, a different amount of talents that would be money and he leaves to 15 talents to 12 and to 11 talent.

So we know the story, right?

The point I wanna make comes from verse 173 says he gave to 15 talents to another two to another one, each according to his own ability.

And immediately he went on his journey.

So God knows our abilities in this parable.

The master knew his servants each what their ability was and he didn't give them more than they were capable of handling.

That's what God does for us in Psalm 139 it says he formed us in the womb.

Don't you think that the one who formed us in the womb knows everything about us?

Psalm 103 says he knows our frame.

He knows what we're made of why, because he made us, he knows what we're made of.

He knows what we can handle and he's not gonna give us something impossible to do.

You know, you hear of pranks that different areas of professional work do like the classic firehouse prank on a rookie fireman.

They tell him to go find the hose stretcher and he, he searches the truck, searches the truck and he can't find it, but it's a prank, you know, or a mechanic, a new mechanic.

He's some young guy, maybe an apprentice and the mechanic tells him to go change the blinker fluid in a car, right?

It's like impossible task.

It's a prank, but that God's not gonna do that to us.

God's not gonna give you something.

Give you a trial, give you a temptation that he's looking down and knowing that you're gonna fail to get through.

That's not God.

First Corinthians chapter 10, first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able.

But with the temptation will also make the wave escape that you may be able to bear it.

God is faithful.

He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able to bear.

I think of job. Right.

You know, job had it pretty bad.

But God knew what job could handle each time Satan came back to God.

God would say, ok, you can do this but don't do this.

Jo God knew exactly what Joe could handle and exactly what he couldn't.

And he wouldn't let Satan go further than that.

He knows us.

Same for us today.

I was talking to my cousin Michael Reeves.

I know, I think most of y'all know him.

I was talking to him recently about kind of the feeling that maybe I had more on my plate than I could handle.

And he reminded me of something that my mom would tell him.

She would say this.

It went something like this.

God must have a co a lot of confidence in your abilities if he gave you a trial that big.

That's wow.

You know, have you ever thought about that if you're going through something and God knows what you can handle.

God is saying, I know you can handle this.

Have you ever maybe you think of yourself as the one talent man, you're thinking God, you know, I can't handle this.

You know, the one talent man, he took his talent and hit it in the ground because he didn't, you know, he didn't think he could do anything with it.

You may think you're the one talent man.

But if you have a trial that you think is too big for you, God is telling you, I know you, I have confidence in you.

You may be actually the five talent man.

You know, maybe that's something to think about.

But one thing that you can always count on God will always do the right thing, God won't be unjust or unfair with you.

He'll always do the right thing.

And on top of that, there's also the possibility that whatever trial, whatever temptation it is you're going through, it might be discipline.

We were just talking about Hebrews 12, uh Wednesday night here in the auditorium, Hebrews 12.

It talks about God disciplining those who he loves.

Hebrews 12 183 says my son do not despise the chastening of the Lord.

Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves.

He chastens and discourages every son whom he receives.

So maybe your trial, maybe that thing that you can't seem to get through is discipline.

You know, that's just something to think about.

Something I thought about.

I think sometimes we get in the mindset that Cain had when he killed Abel and then God cursed him.

He comes to God and says, God, you know, my punishment is too hard, too much for me to bear.

You know, I've thought that maybe you have too, but God reminds us through his word.

I know you, you know, even though, you think this is too big for you.

You know, I know you better than, you know yourself.

Trust me, I will provide for you.

So God will never ask us to do something that we're not able to get through.

He's also promised us peace and strength, but the key is to look in the right place for it.

You know, some people try to run away from their problems.

They're going through a really hard time so they just, they just run away, they leave.

You know, maybe if I get out my problems won't follow me.

That's what Jonah tried to do.

But how did that work out for him?

Right. God, did God provide for Jonah?

I think God provided a big slimy wake up call for Jonah, spend a few nights in a fish belly.

You know, maybe you try to escape reality using some substance.

You're looking for peace.

You're looking to get away from your problems because it's too, too much for you.

But you can never find the peace that you're looking for unless you go to God.

That's what we find in Philippians chapter four.

Philippians chapter four verse six and seven.

Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

So what's the key here?

Go to the end that last phrase through Christ Jesus.

It's only in Jesus that the peace of God will guard our minds.

Notice the source.

It's not our peace, it's not peace found somewhere else.

It's the peace of God.

God has promised us peace through Christ Jesus.

We find a similar promise over in Isaiah, Isaiah 41 verse 10.

God is telling Israel that he will help them.

But the same applies to us today, God through his word tells us Isaiah 4110 fear not for I am with you.

Be not dismayed for I am your God.

I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And one more passage, Psalm 216.

Psalm 21.

The first three verses, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore, we will not fear even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.

The psalmist here is saying, you know, even if the earth and mountains fell into the sea, even if some catastrophic, catastrophic event happened.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.

You know, once again, realize it doesn't say the strength is ours.

Yes, God gives it to us, but the source is not ours.

Remember the source, you know, after a while.

Maybe you've gone through something God has given you strength and you start to feel like, oh, you know, I'm, I'm pretty good, I'm pretty strong.

I can get through this and you kind of get a little too big for your bridges at that point.

And at that point, you've lost connection with the source of your strength.

Not too long ago, I heard Steve Klein over in Athens say you're only as strong as your source of strength.

So where are you going for strength?

We're going to sing a song that talks about where our strength lies the rock of my heart. OK?

All right.

My, of my Yeah, of you home where my face and you and no, that we at least a you and problem.

Hey, yeah, we say, yeah. Yes. Yeah.

You um so we've talked about God providing for us being my God and my shepherd.

He'll supply all our needs.

I won't want anything.

I'll have nothing that I need out of his riches.

I have a feast spread before me.

But you may be thinking kind of like we're just saying, you know, I can't understand.

I ju I just, you know, my heart's embittered.

I'm overcome with things.

I can't understand.

You know, it sounds great to hear that God will provide.

But John, it just doesn't seem like that's happening, doesn't seem to mesh with how my life is going.

So what does this look like in real life, you know, when the rubber meets the road, how does God provide?

How does God help me when I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death like that psalmist writes in Psalm 2414.

So I want to look at a couple of examples.

Hopefully, we can relate to their human examples.

First one, Elijah over in First kings chapter 234, we won't read really from it, but you can turn over there if you wanna follow along with kind of what I'm talking about.

But Elijah is told by God early in chapter 215 to go hide by the Brook Cherith and that he would provide for him.

He says, in verse four, first kings 217, verse four says, let's back up to verse three, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the Brook Charith which flows into the Jordan and it will be that you shall drink from the brook.

And I have commanded the Ravens to feed you there.

So God's saying, go over here and I'm gonna provide.

So what does that provision look like?

Well, God tells him that Ravens are gonna feed him.

He has a brook and Ravens are gonna feed him.

Well, I didn't really know this before uh preparing this lesson.

But Ravens, they're carrying eaters, they're scavengers, so they're big, they're dirty birds.

They're kind of like kind of like a vulture.

And so I could see Elijah saying, you know, really God these big old nasty birds are gonna feed me, they're gonna bring, bring me food.

God said he's going to help me.

God said he's going to provide for me.

So, you know, maybe just, maybe that bread that the Ravens brought and the meat that the Ravens brought, maybe it was a hot, freshly baked loaf of bread and it was a juicy steak, but I don't think so.

These are scavengers. Remember?

This is probably stale bread that they picked up somewhere.

This is probably a carcass of an animal that they picked up somewhere.

And that's how God provides for Elijah.

So maybe he gets used to that.

We're moving on.

Maybe he gets used to that.

But at least he has this brook that God's given him.

Well, we see that there's a drought that Brook starts to dry up.

You know, that wouldn't be an overnight thing.

He wouldn't wake up the next morning and the Brooks just dry.

That would have been a gradual thing.

It would have started to flow a little slower, you know, not be as clear and then it kind of dries up and there's little pools here and there of warm cloudy water, but God's providing.

So then after a while, God comes to him and tells him to go to Zarephath.

He says, Elijah, go to Zarephath and there's a widow there that she will, she will take care of you.

Interesting fact here, Zarephath in Hebrew translates to a place of refinement.

Uh oh, Elijah's been in a hard spot.

He's been fed by these big nasty Ravens.

Probably stale food.

His brook dried up and now God says go to the place of refinement.

Elijah and that's 18 miles away.

It's in enemy territory up in Sidon.

So Elijah goes there.

He probably walked.

Maybe he had a donkey, I'm not sure, but on the way all along the way, maybe he's thinking, you know what?

I don't understand.

It seems pretty bad, but God said he's providing for me.

Well, he finally gets, if it's a fact, he finds this widow and he comes to her and asks her for a drink.

So she's going to get him some water.

He's probably parched.

Remember it's in a drought.

He's gone 223 miles.

That must have taken a long time.

He asked for a drink and as she's going, he says, oh, by the way, can you get me a little bit of bread too?

Maybe he's hoping for a hot loaf of bread after a long time.

And what does she say?

What does the widow say?

Verse 216.

218st kings, 17 verse 12 says as the Lord to God lives, I do not have bread.

Only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar.

And see, I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die.

So God has prepared a widow for Elijah who is about to die, who has nothing.

You know, Elijah, at this point is probably really confused.

God told me he would provide and this person that he had told me will provide for me is about to die.

So maybe he's thinking maybe I found the wrong widow, right?

But no, this is the widow that God had prepared for him all along.

God is supplying God is providing Elijah's needs, what he keeps on providing through the drought.

And the drought lasted about 3.5 years.

We find that in uh in the New Testament in James and Luke.

So for 3.5 years, Elijah is there and then they get through that and Elijah settles in and then disaster strikes and the widow's son dies again.

You know what's going on God.

And this is how Jonah uh Elijah reacts.

Uh first kings 17 verse 20.

He cried out to the Lord and said, oh, Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son?

So Elijah, thank God, you killed this widow's son.

You said you would provide.

And then we know the rest of the story, God brings the boy back to life.

God will provide.

So in this scenario, in Jonas life all along God was providing, it probably didn't look like it to him.

But God was providing, he knows what we need.

He will supply those things.

So that was Elijah one more Abraham Genesis chapter 163.

Again, a really well known story Isaac is the son of promise.

Abraham's waited many years for Isaac.

He has Isaac.

And then God comes to him in Genesis chapter 22 starting in verse one.

And it came to pass after these things that God tested.

Abraham said to him, Abraham, he said, here I am.

Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, go to the land of Mariah offer him.

There is a burn offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you.

So God comes to Abraham tells him, you know, there's a son, here's the son of promise.

God promised he would provide a son.

He has provided the son and God comes to Abraham must have been at night and he tells him go kill that son.

Well, we see Abraham gets up early in the next morning.

I imagined him tossing and turning.

This is just how I see it.

You, you might interpret it differently.

But I imagine him tossing and turning all through the night.

He can't sleep knowing what he's about to do.

You know, I think maybe sometimes we don't read between the lines enough in scripture.

Maybe we get the idea that Abraham just kind of robotically got up in the morning, marched up the mountain and then was ready to kill us.

So I don't, I don't think so.

May maybe that was the case, but I don't think so.

I think Abraham struggled every step of the way, wondering how God would provide.

How is God providing right now?

I know I do that a lot each step of the way.

You know, how is God providing?

And I kind of want to see Abraham doing this too.

It, it helps me relate to him.

But Abraham had great faith in God.

But having great faith, having a strong faith doesn't mean that you're gonna have questions sometimes, doesn't mean you're gonna have doubts sometimes.

But we have to remember that God will provide.

So a Abraham gets up, you know, he doesn't understand, but he knows God will provide.

So he's, it takes him three days to get there before he goes.

He splits the wood because He has to sacrifice.

You know, he, he gets a torch, he gets the wood, he gets his knife ready.

But all the while remembering that these are the things that are gonna kill his son.

But he's thinking, you know, God will provide.

So they get, they get near to the place where he's gonna sacrifice.

And he tells the two young men that are with Him.

He says, you know, stay here with the donkey, watch the donkey and my son and I will come back, we're gonna go sacrifice and then we're gonna come back and then under his breath, I hear him saying we're gonna come back because God will provide.

So Abraham gets that bundle of wood that he's prepared and he straps it on Isaac's back.

All the while thinking, you know, this is about to kill my son.

This is about to burn him.

But God will provide as he's tightening the straps, he's thinking that he grabs a torch from one of the young men thinking God will provide.

God will provide.

He makes sure he has his knife knowing that that's about to kill his son.

He's nervous.

He has that sick feeling in his stomach.

And then they start going up the mountain, they walk in silence for a while.

You know, Isaac has a load of wood on his back.

They're just going in silence and suddenly Isaac says, you know, Father Abraham, I just realized, you know, we have the wood, we have the torch for the fire.

But what about the lamb?

You know, where's the sacrifice?

And what does Abraham say?

It's what I envisioned Him thinking for three days, my son, God will provide.

So they get to the place they build the author and it's time for Abraham to tell Isaac my son, you are the offering.

I see him begging in tears for Isaac to let him bind him up and put him on the altar.

You know, maybe he even told Isaac, you know, the only, the only way I can see that God is providing through here is that He's gonna raise you back up.

Maybe he said that to him.

So he binds up Isaac puts him on the altar thinking God will provide.

He reaches for that knife at his belt.

He's raising it up ready to kill Isaac.

And may you know, I see him thinking God will provide God will provide.

Maybe he even said it out loud and suddenly a loud voice comes out of nowhere, Abraham Abraham and he turns around trying to find it.

He says, here I am, it's the angel of the Lord.

He says, Abraham, stop.

Now I know now I know that you fear the Lord.

And he says, look and there's a ram over in the thicket struggling God will provide.

You know, it didn't seem like it three days of misery wondering how God would provide.

And there it is the ram, the ram caught in the thicket.

And so Abraham offers that ram on the altar and he decides to call the place the Lord will provide.

So those are two examples.

Maybe you can relate to them.

You're maybe you've gone through something maybe three days, maybe longer where it's just like I don't get it.

How is God providing?

But we see with Elijah, we see with Abraham the Lord will provide.

Sorry, I'm notes sir acting up on me.

So that's what Abraham and Elijah show me.

This is, these are the things that it showed me.

It's ok to be confused.

It's ok to be discouraged.

It's ok to doubt that, you know, God, what's going on, you know, when life is slapping you in the face, you just can't understand.

It's ok to wonder why.

You know, I think sometimes we set an impossible standard for ourselves where we feel guilty, we feel like we've sinned, maybe for wondering, for doubting for, you know, asking God what's going on. God.

Yes, doubt is a tool that Satan uses to drag us away to pull us away, tempt us to leave God.

But if you realize that it's just Satan, that doubt is just Satan, that God will provide for you, no matter what, that's half the battle, the other half of the battle is trusting that my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

So when you're going through a valley, remember God's promises that we've talked about, talk to Him, how you feel like again, I think sometimes we're scared to be real with God.

Uh Maybe we think we're gonna, we're being disrespectful or irreverent asking God why or telling Him how we really feel.

But the thing is God formed you in the womb.

He knows your frame.

He already knows what you're thinking what you're going through and He knows that you can do it because He is providing.

So don't let your frustration sit in and fester don't let bitterness uh grow in your heart but lay your heart heart out to God.

Tell him how you really feel.

If you just read through the Psalms.

Psalm 88 sticks out to me.

You can see how the psalmists talk to God.

And it's a very real, very raw open dialogue.

I think we can do that.

I think we can be like that.

I think that's what those examples in the Psalms are for.

So don't feel guilty for being human.

You know, we're not emotionless beings.

God knows that God will provide one last verse, Hebrews chapter four, Hebrews four verse 14 through 16.

1 reason that we can come before God with our raw and real emotions is because of this Hebrews 414 seeing then that we have a high, great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We can come boldly before God's throne.

Cry out to God for help.

What does Psalm 34 say we're not gonna turn there.

But verse 15 says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to the cry.

God is listening.

When you come boldly before His throne.

Verse 17 says, the righteous cry out and God hears you if you're a righteous person, if you're trying to live according to God's word, God will hear you.

And verse 18 says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

If you're brokenhearted, if you're going through something that you just feels like it's so much more than you can handle.

God is near to you.

And he hears you think back to Psalm 23.

David talks about walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

What does a valley imply?

A valley implies that there's somewhere above that, right?

You can't have a valley without a higher place.

What does a shadow imply?

The valley of the shadow of death?

Well, a shadow, you can't have a shadow without light.

So there's a higher place somewhere and there's light somewhere.

Look to that higher place, look to that light.

That's God, that's God's promises.

David says there's no reason to be afraid God is with you.

I want to be realistic though, right?

I don't wanna paint an impossible picture of some fairy tale.

I'm not saying we're all have a fairy tale and they live happily ever after ending, right?

You know, there's a very, very real possibility that we might not ever come out of that valley of the shadow of the death of death.

If we're going through it, we may never come out of that here on earth and that's hard to wrestle with.

That's hard to go through, but don't give up.

I said we already looked at the last scripture, but we have one more second Corinthians four, second Corinthians four verse 16 to 18.

Therefore, we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing.

Yet, the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is, but for a moment is working for us a far more and exceeding a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not live.

Look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul says we have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory awaiting us, even if we never make it through the valley of the shadow of death.

Here, we have that in eternity waiting for us.

So if you, if you're going through a valley, if you have been in the past and now you're through it, whatever your situation is tonight, I hope that something I said can help you.

You know, maybe if you haven't gone through a valley yet.

Uh First of all, be thankful, thank God for that.

But then hopefully, if you do start going through that, remember what we've talked about, remember God's promises that my God will supply all your need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.

Before we close, I want to read the words to a song.

He gives us more grace.

Maybe we can learn it and sing it here.

It's a newer song.

Well, it's an old song but newer to a lot of people.

I think it encompasses a lot of what we've talked about.

Verse one.

He gives us more grace as our burdens grow greater.

He sends us more strength as our labors increase to added afflictions.

He adds his great mercy to multiply trials.

He multiplies peace when we have exhausted our store of endurance.

When our strength has failed, ere the day is half done.

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our father's full giving has only begun fear not that your need shall exceed His provision.

Our God ever yearns his resources to share.

Lean hard on the arm, everlasting, availing the father will bear up both you and your cares.

His love has no limits.

His grace, has no measure, his power, no boundary known unto men for out of his infinite riches in Jesus.

He blesses and blesses and blesses again tonight.

If you're not a Christian, you can't say my God because He's not your God.

You can't say that He'll supply your needs.

You can't enjoy the promises we've talked about.

And if you go through a valley of the shadow of death, the Lord's not with you because he's not your God.

Maybe, maybe you're going through a valley and you are a Christian or maybe you have some spiritual need.

Whatever it is, if we can help you in your situation, you can come forward and make that known as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Gary Copeland

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Repeating the welcome to everyone and appreciating your interest in spiritual things.

Have you ever been just so sleepy that your eyelids feel like they're just super heavy.

You're like they're just little eyelids.

They shouldn't be this heavy, but you just can't even keep them open.

They are just that heavy.

Well, that's exactly what Peter James and John felt in.

Get Simone Matthew chapter 26 verse 43 they had heavy eyes.

They were weighed down eyes and similarly on the mount of transfiguration, those three men were heavy, they were weighed down, they were overcome with sleep.

Depending on your translation.

You'll get those various words from the scripture reading that Douglas did for us there in second Corinthians five, we read that in the body, we are weighed down, we are oppressed.

We have a heavy load, a great weight, a heavy burden, we are burdened and that's why we've grown and maybe the longer we live, the more burdens we have and the more we grown.

But I've met young people that are similarly burdened and groaning.

So that weight is not a good feeling that burden makes you feel bad.

So with that little brief word study in mind.

All these heavy eyes weighed down, burdened, overcome with whatever feeling with that word study in mind this morning's lesson has to do with some ways in which we burden the church.

How do you like that little picture I drew pretty good.

Yeah, I had a little help.

A little a, I help, I wanna talk about burdening the church, putting a weight on the church that makes the church groan things that are not appropriate.

These are avoidable burdens.

First way we burden the church that comes to mind is unsound doctrine.

And uh you'll know you'll notice in all these points that the churches across this fruited plain uh here in harvest in Monrovia and Huntsville Madison suffer with these things.

But there's an example in the scripture of unsound doctrine in acts chapter 15, the teaching was that new Christians that were coming to God that were not from a Jewish background.

They were going to have to obey the law of Moses.

Well, in teaching against that, Peter makes the point in acts chapter 15 and verse 10 that the law of Moses had been a burden.

He called it a yoke which Peter said, neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.

It acts 15 verse 163.

It was just too much, not that it couldn't be kept perfectly.

Jesus did, but everyone eventually fails in trying to carry it out perfectly.

And so putting expectations from the law of Moses on these new gentiles coming to the gospel of Jesus would have been placing on them an unfair burden and besides a whole useless burden.

And there's a whole other thing about mixing the covenants that is inappropriate.

But the conclusion of the discussion was to lay upon those new Christians as verses 28 and 29 say no greater burden.

Then these essentials and then he men mentions abstaining from idolatry, abstaining from eating or drinking blood, abstaining from eating things that had been strangled and abstaining from sexual immorality.

And so teaching has a weight to it, but we need to avoid putting on excessive teaching.

And in this case, mixing the covenants when we mix part of the old covenant with the new covenant and whether we're talking about instrumental music being brought in or using incense as part of worship or developing a priesthood according to some human order, we are burdening the church.

There's another way in which unsound doctrine can burden the church.

Some churches set expectations that go beyond what is written and they make church rules, whether they're imposing just their own ideas or preferences of the leaders or forcing certain cultural norms on others.

I actually heard of a church.

I think it was in this area.

I don't remember the details, but uh they actually kept a collection of neck ties hanging in the lobby so that any men that were expected to wait on the Lord's table.

That's when we were passing the elements through the audience.

They were expected to go grab one of those ties if they weren't wearing a tie that morning and put that on so they could serve at the Lord's table.

Well, don't you think that's getting a little bit out of?

That's third Timothy. Right.

In other words, some scripture that doesn't even exist, that's just not appropriate, that's making up rules and enforcing things that are just beyond what is written.

And now here's the disclaimer.

Don't get me wrong.

Don't misunderstand, please.

We, we live in an increasingly casual society.

Pretty much the only time you'll see me in the ties when I'm doing something up here in front preaching or something else.

But I want us to understand that we can show an irreverent attitude toward worship and toward God.

By the way, we dress some examples.

Uh We know this is not the playground, we don't wear playground clothes when we come to worship.

Some clothes are simply not appropriate for worship and some clothes draw attention to themselves.

Even though they're perhaps formal, they may be too formal.

They draw attention to themselves and so are by definition, not modest.

They're, they're so out of step with everyone else around them.

Some t-shirts should simply never be worn, right?

But much less when we're worshiping, they're just distracting messages and whatnot images.

Some churches add other writings to the scriptures.

They supposedly have different revelations.

They have their own creeds, their own statements of faith, their own church laws, they're burdening the church by making church rules.

They're adding on things that God has not put on the church.

And this is what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing Matthew chapter 23 verse four.

And my references are from the legacy Standard Bible this morning.

They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders.

These are the church leaders of the time, the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders.

Think about that big rock on the, on the church, right?

But they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

So unsound doctrine burdens the church another way in which we burden the church is by shirking.

It's funny we've got one of our invitation songs, something about or no, I just one of our regular songs talks about the shirkers.

I will leave the shirkers.

So I had to kind of say, ok, that's not a very modern term, but shirking just means ignoring leaving to one side.

I'm not attending to something that I should attend to.

And so shirking my own personal responsibility, right?

I let someone else do it.

I figure, well, somebody else is going to do whatever an illustration from the body is very simple.

If I expect my left hand to do all the work in picking things up or just in doing things on a daily basis.

Well, that's not fair.

I got a right hand.

It ought to be pitching in doing what it can. Right.

I mean, this is a simple illustration.

I realize this is kind of the opposite of what Tim preached recently.

Uh, Tim preached on what I would consider burdening myself by not accepting help from others.

Well, now I'm talking about the other way where I burden others by not doing what I'm expected reasonably to do myself.

Here's another illustration.

This gets back to something.

I mean, I, I read this back in the other millennium.

I have memories from back then. Yeah.

Some of you all do too with me in the 21122 seventies.

One of the church bulletins talked about a little story about four people.

I said, oh, who are these four people?

Well, they are named anybody, somebody, everybody and nobody.

And it's a simple story and you can fill in the blanks yourself or extend it into as many verses as you want.

But basically everybody knew that anybody could do it and figured that somebody probably would do it.

And so who ended up doing it?

Nobody?

All right.

So shirking our responsibilities, ends up burdening other people.

The scriptures say that we are to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Galatians six verse two.

But at the same time and in that same paragraph, it says that each one will bear his own load.

Verse five, many translations say his own burden.

You'll notice though, I like the legacy Standard Bible for calling in one verse Burdens and another verse lows because they are different Greek words.

And Mr Vine, the, the dictionary writer of Greek words uh describes a pretty good job of does a good job describing the difference between these two words and maybe there's not a big theological point to be made, but, but a burden is something that refers to the weight of a thing.

And so by implication, this is something that's just too heavy for somebody to carry, they're going to need help.

So somebody else comes to the aid.

So we bear one another's burdens when things are that heavy, but each one will carry his own load and that's a different word and it just talks about something that you put on someone.

And so reasonably, you understand that a person can be expected to be able to carry that.

And so the practical question is, what's my load?

Right?

It's anything I can be reasonably expected to do.

Can I send a card?

I'm not good at that, but I can, I can speak an encouraging word.

I can walk up and greet somebody new.

I'm the last one out.

I can figure out how to close those gates back in the parking lot at the risk of embarrassing him.

Um Hi, Nate Nate Smith.

Uh Really caught my attention recently.

He's just taken it upon himself to go through the, uh, through the auditorium and pick up the trash after the Lord's supper because we use these little individual containers and that leaves trash behind.

And I just love that.

He just took it upon himself.

He just saw it eat, he took care of it, something he can do, appreciate that very much.

And so many of you do the same thing.

So my burden is to do what I can for myself.

And then when someone else has a burden, a big weight, it's too heavy for one person.

I pitch in and try to help.

Third way in which we burden the church is by misusing the treasury.

The New Testament examples and instructions establish a very clear pattern for the work of the church.

And once we identify the work of the church, the neat revelation that the insight that I had in fairly recent years was that once we've figured out what the work of the church is, we've already identified what the work of the church, what the use of the treasury is to be.

I mean, they, they're the same thing, right?

Whatever the church is supposed to be doing as, as a collective, that's what our collective funds are to be used for.

And so with that in mind, we think about passages such as first Timothy 21122 that talks about the church being the pillar and uh and ground of the truth.

I'm probably quoting from a different translation than the legacy standard now.

But to uphold the truth in other words and to adorn it, to make it look good.

First Corinthians 234 emphasizes edifying each other.

That's the work of the church talks about in our assembly.

Let all things be done for edification.

I believe that's verse 234.

But that whole chapter is about us building each other up.

It's from Ephesians four.

That's the purpose of the body.

We're supposed to be mutually building each other up.

Uh Hebrews 246.

These are things Tim pointed out a few weeks ago and first Corinthians 23000 talks about us helping the Saints financially, both here and we have needs from time to time in this congregation and also other congregations.

And we know that in this global society, we have connections across the globe.

We just sent another almost $163 this week over to Zimbabwe because they, those brethren are starving, they're down to one meal a day in a lot of times that that's pitiful.

We're sitting here just with more food than we know what to do with.

And so at least we're doing something and that's use of proper and good use of the Treasury to send money, to send funds to other Christians, to help them with their burdens.

We see in acts two acts four acts six acts 216, all those are chapter numbers we see examples of the church pitching in and they lay things, they lay the collective funds and items at the apostles feet there in Jerusalem and in Antioch, the brethren were selling their possessions to help the needy members.

They were sending money to meet the needs of other churches.

In Second Corinthians eight and nine, those two chapters we often read before we take up the collection, we have a lengthy discussion of what they were doing back then.

And we know from First Corinthians 211 that that's still what we're supposed to be doing that as there are needs identified, then we take up collection to meet those needs.

And you'll notice that in chapter eight verse 228, in chapter nine verse 12, 3 times a particular Greek word is used and it gets translated as need or lack.

And so we're talking about the poor, right?

As Romans 15 verse 26 says this money is being collected for the poor among the saints.

And so that's the work of the church.

That's the use of the treasury.

I want to point out that from acts chapter 61 of those chapters that we mentioned, we see there that there was a daily distribution or a daily serving is the word uh to certain widows that were there among the church in Jerusalem.

Well, we know that the the Apostle Paul later left very clear instructions about widows and about how to help them in first Timothy chapter five, he made it very clear that explicit that not just any widow should receive regular support from the Treasury.

Uh That's what verse nine of first Timothy five calls the number or the list.

In other words, these people are just going to be receiving regular help and we find out that they had qualifications because the use of the treasury has limits.

So there in first Timothy five, Paul gives qualifications of those widows who are to be helped on an ongoing basis.

And he specifies in verse four, if any widow has Children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents for.

This is acceptable in the sight of God.

He teaches that the believing child must take care of the widow in his or her own family.

And that as verse 16 says, the church must not be burdened.

There's our word again, right?

The church from its collective funds has a load.

We have all this identified work to do and those, those funds are there for that purpose for those purposes.

So we send to preachers and we use it to edify each other.

And then we use the money to help saints who are poor and who are needy and lacking.

But I want to point out that the funds are finite.

They are limited, right.

Their use is regulated by scripture, both by command and by example.

And when we task the church with taking on from the Treasury, more than is specified in the New Testament, then a few things happen.

Individual Christians may be shirking their responsibilities.

We're leaving the New Testament pattern and we are burdening the church.

The treasury has limits both practically and doctrinally.

You know, it's funny.

Here's an illustration.

Some people in society every time they see some good work, some need arise, they look to the government to solve all their problems.

But as I read recently on that very wise source of all knowledge, Facebook, there is no such thing as government help, right?

And I mean that in the sense of if we say, oh, let the government pay for it, I'm saying, let my tax dollars pay for it, right?

Eventually I am on the hook for that because I'm paying the taxes and those taxes are being used in that way.

Well, it's similar, it's not a perfect uh illustration or analogy because the church can't print its own money.

But I digress a little bit.

But I'm just saying that when we're using collective funds, we're using it for our collective actions and this collective work that we have identified, that's what the treasury is for.

And when we get out of those bounds, we're misusing the treasury and we're burdening the church.

And it said in that case, very specifically, the church must not be burdened similar maybe way in which we burden the church is by getting out of bounds.

There are boundaries and I want to approach this maybe from a little different angle.

I've showed you, I've shown this congregation this uh Venn diagram years ago, but we're different now.

We got new people and it's wonderful.

And so I will not be ashamed or shy about uh firing this up again.

As Tyler Loveless said, oh, we engineers love a good Venn diagram.

So go ahead and bring it on again.

So when we're talking about things that we do, they fall into two categories, the works of the individual and works of the church.

And so when we look at scriptures, we see as one of them was read by Quinn this morning from uh Matthew 113.

Although it's not listed in that list, it could be an individual.

Christian can help all the needy. Anybody.

We see my neighbor, it doesn't matter non-christian, any widow, my pocket is there to help God has given me blessings as an individual and I'm there to share those, those things with other people and help them.

So in that type of benevolence, I as an individual can help all the needy, I can spend my money any way that any good wholesome way that I see fit.

Acts chapter five.

When Peter is talking to Ananias and Saia, he makes that real clear while you had your possession, you didn't have to sell it.

And even after you sold it, you had complete control over the money.

Nobody's obligating you to do good works with these things.

It's up to you.

And so I have that right to determine how I'm gonna spend my money.

And so when we're talking about marrying and raising Children, obviously, that applies to individuals, talking about working, talking about eating a common meal.

These are things that belong in the home.

These are things that go with the individual and there are more scriptures than just those.

But those are at least able to serve as examples to describe the work of the individual.

And on uh a spiritual side of things, we know individuals can go out and preach and pray, sing hymns, discipline the Wayward members.

We do that as individuals.

We do that in the home and we help needy saints, all the widows, even the true widows, we can do that from our pocket.

Now, that's where the, the Venn diagram becomes useful because that list there of preaching and praying and singing and disciplining and helping the needy saints and true widows.

Those are things that the church can also do.

So when we draw the circle and say, what's the work of the church?

We see that yes, there's going to be some overlap.

But there are certain things that belong only to us as a collective, as a body.

Take the Lord's supper, do a deep dive on these passages and you'll find a theme in there, a common, common teaching and that is that we take the Lord's supper together, right?

We come together, we come together as a church, we come together to eat.

It's talking very specifically about the Lord's supper.

And so acts chapter 20 verse seven.

Uh these several verses in First Corinthians 11 throughout that paragraph, part of which was read for us by Jim this morning before taking the Lord's supper, we come together to do these things.

This is a collective activity.

And so as such, we learn that the Lord's supper is not to be an individual activity.

We do it as a body when we come together.

Similarly, the Treasury that obviously belongs to all of us, that's a collective action.

And once it goes out of my pocket into the treasury, then it belongs to the group, it belongs for the work of the body, the collective.

And so when we look at these versus uh now, even on another level, more closely, we will learn a very important thing.

And back in the 19 fifties, when a lot of these ideas were being debated publicly, uh some made, the statement had the teaching that there's only one circle, right, that anything that the individual can do, the church can also do, right?

Because they see that area of overlap perhaps.

And they say, well, look things that the church does, the individual also can do, which is true.

But there are limits to that.

And so when we see verses like first Corinthians 1122 and the Apostle Paul says, what?

Don't you have houses to eat and drink in or do you shame the church of God?

Yeah, we have houses to eat and drink in.

And so we see already that there have to be two circles.

It can't just be one circle.

Listen people that, that have this one circle idea.

They've got the church doing all this stuff over here.

They've got the church into the, in the food business.

They've got the church, they've got Starbucks and mcdonald's and whatever else in their church building and they're into, into business and they're taking some of the profits from, from these sales.

They're, they get all kinds of works going on.

Uh, they don't marry and raise Children.

I get it.

But, but they do put up, uh, but nurseries. Right.

And so they hire people and they've got staff and they've got this whole childcare thing going on and they do that as a church and they use the, the church collective funds to do that.

Uh And so they get into all kinds of other things, uh, talk about spending money any way they want.

Uh, they figure, well, if the individual can do it, the church can do it.

And so, uh, Lord willing, uh, my next opportunity in this pulpit to preach will be early next year.

I'll get into more detail.

About those kinds of things.

But we see that there must be two circles because not only does Paul say in First Corinthians 1122 do you not have houses in which to eat and drink or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing.

He says down in verse 34.

Let's see where verse 34 pops up.

It's there on the individual side.

Uh And also there in that context, regulating the Lord's supper.

Paul specifically says, if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.

And so Paul is addressing the Corinthian church is un praiseworthy practices, right?

And he gives a command that both solves the problems that are being that are arising in the, in the taking of the Lord's supper.

And one which goes beyond that and applies generally at all times.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, there have to be two circles, common eating and drinking belongs at home, not in the assembly, not as a collective, it's not a, a church activity, it falls under the work of the individual and that fits with the pattern that's established by the early church in acts chapter two, verse 46.

That's there on the individual side because it says the Christians, there were daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.

So we've got 3000 plus members.

They're not all eating in one home, right?

This is something that the individuals are doing that this work is distributed through the homes.

And so we can also know that there must be two circles from the passage that we mentioned earlier in first chap.

First Timothy chapter five verse 16, the legacy Standard Bible reads, the church must not be burdened.

And so you'll remember that's in the context of helping widows, but not just any widow, an individual Christian can help any widow, but the church's funds are limited to helping true widows.

So we maintain the two circles.

All right.

What have I said?

Main takeaway points are that as an individual, I have a load to carry and I should never burden someone else with a task that I can reasonably be expected to do.

And in the same way, the church has a prescribed work to accomplish.

And we have teachings that are regulated by the New Testament.

We should never ask the church to do something outside of its realm that is, that belongs to the work of the individuals.

And we must never add to the inspired teachings. Ok?

Now, as we're drawing to a close, let's go back to the second Corinthians passage, second Corinthians chapter five.

And let's read the three verses that come before the passage that Douglas read for us in chapter four, starting in verse 16.

The Apostle Paul says, we do not lose heart.

But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for our momentary light affliction is working out for us, an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Now, that's heavy.

That's a burden that we want.

We want that eternal weight of glory.

So no matter how burdensome this life becomes, the coming glory outweighs it right far beyond all comparison.

And I like how he's playing with those words, our light affliction and this eternal weight of glory.

So we will have burdens in this life that inevitably come from living in the body.

As he mentioned, there, our outer man is decaying, but there are also burdens that we bring upon ourselves unnecessarily.

We all we've all done it.

And I'm talking about sin.

And if you haven't dealt with your sins according to God's plan, then you need to unburden your soul because that's a burden that you don't need to be carrying.

Matthew chapter 11, starting verse 28 Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and catch it heavy laden and I will give you rest.

You've got to come to Jesus.

You've got to believe in Him as God's son, as the savior of the world.

That's why you come.

He says, take my yoke upon you.

That yoke was a wooden apparatus that that went over the necks of two animals to keep them working together.

Jesus says, take my yoke upon you.

You accept him as Lord.

You say he's going to be the one directing where I go, you start that by confessing his name by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

And then he says, and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

It's a lifelong pursuit.

He says for, I am sorry.

He says for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That's the load that he's going to place on you.

It's a permanent yoke.

It's a lifetime commitment, but it is light compared to the burden of sin.

If you're living under that burden of sin, unburden your soul, give yourself over to Jesus, become a Christian, become a follower of Jesus Christ because as the apostle John said in first John chapter five verse three, his commandments are not burdensome.

They are something we can bear, we can do so gladly in hope of that eternal weight of glory.

So if you have any need this morning, spiritually that we can help with, help you with, we'd encourage you to come to the front while we stand and sing

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Troy Nicholson

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

If you'd like to turn to Joshua chapter 24 I'll be reading from the ESV.

Yeah, just by way of observation and hopefully in a way as to not get into Troy's thoughts for the lesson tonight, the uh ESV headings talk about uh this section of text as the covenant renewal at sheck.

And then we edge down into a transition that uh the translators uh entitled choose whom you will serve.

Beginning at verse one, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shek em and some of the youngers, the heads, the judges, the officers of Israel and they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to the people thus says, the Lord God of Israel long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Tara, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many I gave him Isaac and to Isaac, I gave Jacob and Esau and I gave Esau the hill country of sir to possess.

But Jacob and his Children went down to Egypt and I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it.

And afterward I brought you out, then I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the sea and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt.

And you lived in the wilderness a long time.

Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan.

They fought with you and I gave them into your hand and you took possession of their land and I destroyed them before you.

Then Balak, the son of Zor king of Moab arose and fought against Israel and he sent and invited Balaam the sons of Bor to curse you.

But I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed.

He blessed you.

So I delivered you out of his hand and you went over the Jordan and became and came to Jericho and the leaders of Jericho fought against you and also the Amorites and the parasites and the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Gites, the Hibs, the Je sites, and I gave them into your hand and I sent the hornet before you which drove them out before you.

The two kings of the Amorites.

It was not your sword or by your bow.

I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built and you dwell in them, you eat the fruit of the vineyards and the olive orchards that you did not plant.

Now, therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness, put away the gods that your father served beyond the river in Egypt and serve the Lord.

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day, whom you will serve.

Whether the gods of your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Well, it's always a pleasure to stand before you and I'm thankful for this opportunity tonight.

For those of you are visiting, I'll just let you know I'm not the regular preacher.

So please come back in spite of what you may hear tonight.

Uh But in spite of the speaker, we will try to study God's word.

And I pray that it can be something that will be beneficial to all of us as we open and study God's word together this evening.

Sometimes there are certain passages that stand out to us in the Bible as being more passage passages that challenge us.

And we find one of those challenges that's being issued uh to the Israelites as soon as I can get my clicker out, we find that in the reading that we just had, especially in the last couple of verses uh of that reading verses 14 and 15.

And probably everyone here is familiar with that.

Some of you may have it hanging in your house.

It's something that we regularly see around, but it was issued really as a challenge to the Israelites at this point in their history.

And I want us to examine this challenge for ourselves tonight and consider the idea of choosing to serve the Lord.

What's it really mean to choose to serve the Lord?

Well, it really means the same thing for us that it did for them.

And I think by examining what Josh was set before them will help us understand what it really means.

And hopefully we can evaluate ourselves to see whether or not we're really up to the challenge of serving the Lord.

As we consider the idea of choosing to serve the Lord.

I first want to state what may seem rather obvious at first.

And that is that choosing to serve the Lord is a choice.

And while that may seem obvious, I think it's something that that's worth mentioning because some religious groups will tell us, well, it's really not our choice.

God makes that choice for us.

God predetermines who's going to be saved and who isn't.

It's really not your choice at all.

God just randomly or however says, I, I think you're chosen, you're chosen.

No, you're not.

You are.

And they say the choice isn't ours.

But Joshua obviously hadn't heard that false teaching or at least if he did, he didn't buy into it because he tells the Israelites they have a choice.

And throughout the Bible, we see choices being given to God's people.

I mean, really the, in, in one sense that the Bible is a book of Choices from Genesis to Revelation.

It's one choice after another that mankind has to decide to make one example.

If we go back from Joshua, go back to Moses in Hebrews chapter 11.

In that Hall of Faith, we're told a little bit about Moses there and about the choice that he made in Hebrews 11 beginning verse 313 it says by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward.

God could have just looked down at Moses and told him Moses, I got a chore for you.

Whether you like it or not, you're coming with me and you're gonna do my will.

But here we see that Moses had a choice and he chose the affliction that he suffered.

He chose to endure what he did he considered the options, the riches of Egypt, the oppression of Israel.

And he made that choice for himself.

And again, all throughout the Bible, we see that the idea if we have a choice, Ecclesiastes chapter seven, we see the wise men telling us that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

In other words, we can go against the upright nature that God has designed us to live according to.

We can choose to stay upright or we can choose to go astray.

We can choose to go a different way.

Now, that doesn't mean that God doesn't care.

God made us that way because he wants us to follow the right path.

Uh Peter tells us in second Peter three and verse nine, the Lord is patient to you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

Now, God could just say I want everybody to be saved.

So everybody's gonna be saved.

I mean, after all, he's got him do what he wants.

But he says, no, I'm gonna give people a choice.

I'm going to be patient with them and hope they choose to repent.

But ultimately, it's their choice.

They make the decision.

And Peter came to understand that everyone in the world has a choice.

We're, we're looking at a time when God's chosen people or the Israelites, we come into the New Testament and Peter living under the new covenant came to understand that God wanted everybody to be saved and everybody had a choice when we look in X chapter 10 and we find Him at the household of Cornelius.

He said, but in every nation, whoever fears Him and works, it works righteousness is accepted by Him.

It's not a matter of God just choosing certain people to be saved.

God says it's your choice.

You want to serve me, you can choose to serve me and I'll accept you.

You want to work righteousness, then you can choose that and I'll accept you, but it's your choice.

And that's a point that Josh was making to the Israelites here in Philippians two and verse 12, it says that we get to work out our own salvation.

Now, God definitely has his part, but he also gives us a part.

It's a choice.

Will you choose to serve the Lord?

And something else that makes itself clear from this passage is that it's a logical choice.

Now, left reading all the hard names to Craig and he did a great job in reading those.

I don't have to read them.

Now, I can just summarize what he just read for us.

And if you look at the first several verses there in Joshua 24 mainly verses one through 13.

Essentially, God is telling the Israelites through Joshua, remember everything that I've done for you, how I delivered your fathers, how I brought you out of Egypt across the red sea across the Jordan into this land that you now live in.

And after God reminded them of everything that He had done.

That's when we get to verse 14, after God says, remember what I've done then Joshua says, now, therefore, fear of the Lord serve him.

You probably know like every good Bible student you see the word there for.

You gotta ask what's it there for?

It's there as a conclusion to everything that God just said.

God said, I've taken care of you.

I've provided everything for you.

Just the logical conclusion would be that you'll serve me.

Now, obviously, the Israelites, at least at this point bought into that logic because after Joshua went on to tell them fear of the Lord serve him, how did they respond?

Well, go down to verse 16.

So the people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods?

Why, why would it be far from them to do that?

Why would it just be the logical thing to serve God for the Lord?

Our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who did these great things or great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the Lord drove out from before us, all the people including the Amorites who dwelt in the land.

So again, they say through conclusion, because of all this, we also will serve the Lord for He is our God to kind of summarize this.

They basically say, well, what other logical conclusion would we come to?

But to serve the Lord when we stop and think about all that he's done for us.

And really, that's the same way that it should be for us today.

If we're trying to choose whether or not we're gonna serve the Lord, what other logical conclusion is there when we consider all that God has done for us?

And this isn't just old Testament, reasoning come to the book of James in James chapter one in verse 17, James said, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change of his own will.

He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

So how should we logically respond to what God has done for us?

Well, verse 21 therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness, the implanted word which is able to save your souls again.

Why would we do that?

Because every good and perfect gift is from above.

We do that because of all that God has done for us.

It's just a logical conclusion that we're going to choose to serve the Lord when we consider what the Lord has done for us.

But at the same time, we need to realize a point that Joshua made with them.

And that is the fact that it's a difficult choice.

It's kind of interesting after Josh was encouraging them to serve the Lord and they're all in.

Yes, we, we're, we'll serve the Lord.

I mean, that's the logical thing to do.

What does he say next?

You can't, essentially, that's what he said.

He said in verse 19, you're not able to serve the Lord for he is a holy God.

Being a holy God means he has a holy standard for us.

And if we're going to serve a holy God, then we need to do so in a holy way.

And so Josh was really telling these people, it's not gonna be easy to live up to the high standard that God has for you.

He's such a holy God.

Are you sure you can live up to that standard?

Are you really ready to choose to buy into that?

And he wasn't literally telling them, you can't just don't, don't even try as we continue to read.

We see he's more or less just trying to get them to understand what they're getting into.

But we need to realize that today choosing to serve the Lord, sure, I'll choose to serve the Lord.

We want everybody to make that choice, but just like Jesus, when he came to this earth and people were following him, he stopped them sometimes and said, have you counted the calls?

Do you understand what it really means to follow me?

Are you willing to make the sacrifice?

Are you really willing to commit to following me?

So, what Josh was trying to get the Israelites to realize you, you're committing to serving a holy God.

Well, that same holy God is the God that we serve today.

So we shouldn't be surprised that we have that same standard set for us in second Peter chapter uh excuse me, first Peter chapter four, verse 103 Peter said, but as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Anybody here able to do that, anybody holding all your conduct.

I gotta put my hand down too.

I didn't see the others go up.

That, that's a high standard when we choose to serve the Lord though.

That's really what God says.

All right, you want to serve me be holy like I'm holy.

The reality is we won't quite live up to that standard.

The reality is what Paul told the Romans in Romans chapter three and verse 23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Even when we choose to serve the Lord, we're gonna fall short of his high standard.

It's going to be difficult to live the way God wants us to live.

Let's not say, don't try, don't do your best.

But we're choosing to serve a holy God who has a holy standard.

It's not always going to be easy.

And something else that Joshua emphasized to the Israelites is the fact that it's a serious choice.

Continue in verse 19 there in Joshua 24 he says of God, he's a jealous God.

He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign Gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good.

In other words, you want to choose to serve the Lord and choose to serve him.

He'll bless you, he'll provide for you.

But if you fail to live up to that commitment, well, he's going to consume you.

It's a serious business and we choose to serve the Lord and Joshua wanted them to realize how serious the commitment they were making was.

If you choose to serve the Lord and leave sin behind, there is no going back.

It's not one day.

Oh, I'll live this way and another day, I'll live that way.

It's a serious commitment that you make.

Are you up to the commitments?

Again, the New Testament emphasizes the same point that, that it's a serious commitment we make when we choose to serve the Lord Peter said it this way in second Peter two and verse 214 if for, if after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

They are again entangled in them and overcome.

The last state has become worse for them.

Then the first, in other words, you choose to serve the Lord, it's not all that easy.

So you choose to quit, you're gonna be worse off than you were before you ever started.

You'll be in the group that the Lord say he's going to consume when you fail to live up to your commitment.

Well, backing up into our main verses again, they're in Joshua 212 back in verse 215, Joshua also emphasizes the fact that it's a personal choice.

Now, Josh was probably speaking to possibly 231 million people or so because he's addressing the Israelites at this point.

But he's not asking for a national commitment here.

He's asking for a personal commitment on the part of each and everyone who hears him notice the personal nature of it verse 224, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, not just the nation as a whole, but as individuals.

And if it seems good to you to serve the Lord, but as for me, he makes it personal for himself as well.

It's a personal choice when it comes to serving the Lord.

And we need to realize the seriousness of that.

Nobody else can make that decision for us.

I feel blessed to have been able to be raised by Godly parents.

I'm thankful for their good example.

I'm thankful for the good brethren around me as I grew up.

But there came a day I left home and I quit going to that church and I've got to make the choice on my own because on the day of judgment I can't stand behind my parents.

I'm thankful for the KSR family here and I think it's a great group of people.

I think we do a great job of standing for the Lord and showing the love of God.

And in some ways, it'd be great to just be judged as a group before God, Ksr group.

Did you choose to serve the Lord?

If you would like to kind of hide behind as we come together as a group?

The fact is we're not gonna be judged that way.

Each of us are gonna be judged as individuals.

Each of us has to make the choice for ourselves.

Am I going to choose to serve the Lord?

I love spending time with others who've made that choice, but I have to make that choice myself.

And I'm going to be judged based on how well I've made that choice.

Ezekiel emphasizes that point in Ezekiel chapter 231, he said, yet you say, why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?

The cost of Sun has done what is lawful and right?

Ok, because the son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all my statutes and observe them.

He shall surely live the soul who sins shall die.

Not, in fact, that's the central message here.

The Son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father bear the guilt of the Son.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Each of us is going to be judged as an individual.

And so really, the question is, is serving the Lord, your choice, not your parents, not friends.

Is it your personal choice?

Because someday you're gonna stand before God an answer for whether or not it's your choice and whether or not you lived up to that choice as Paul stated to the Corinthian brethren and second Corinthians chapter five and verse 183, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

We're all gonna be there, the notice of judgment.

It's individual that each 218 may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done.

Whether good or bad serving the Lord is a personal choice.

Is it your choice?

And again, Joshua emphasizes how choosing to serve the Lord is an exclusive choice.

Again, if you look there in verse 224, he says now therefore fear the Lord serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river.

And in Egypt serve the Lord notice twice.

He says, serve the Lord serve the Lord.

But what does he say right between that?

Basically, if you're gonna serve the Lord, you gotta get rid of everything else.

You got to get rid of all the other gods.

If you're going to serve the Lord, because you can't serve the Lord in on this side and keep the gods on the other side.

It doesn't work that way.

Remember, God is a jealous God.

If we're going to choose Him, it has to be only Him.

He doesn't allow us to try to split our allegiance.

Joshua made the same plea with the people in first kings chapter 224.

Before the great event there at Mount Carmel, they're the people, the Israelites were kind of wishy washy which direction they were going, who they were gonna serve.

And so Joshua told them, all right.

I mean, put up there a little later and uh Joshua 24 Joshua again really makes the same point.

But going on to what uh Elijah told the people.

He said, how long will you falter between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him.

But if bell follow him, you can't straddle the fence when it comes to serving God, you can't kind of be wishy washy.

God wants all or none.

Th th those are really the only two choices.

Either you're fully committed to serving God and you cast aside everything and everybody else or don't even bother.

I mean, isn't that really the same point Jesus made even when he was upon this earth, some of those who are following him, he says, are you really committed to me?

Are you willing to forsake everybody else?

Will you even hate your own father and mother and wife and kids?

In comparison to me, that's an exclusive choice to follow after God.

But that's the kind of commitment that God expects of us.

It's Him and him alone.

Jesus stated it this way in the sermon on the mouth.

In Matthew chapter six, no one can serve two masters.

Either He will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Your mammon.

Now think about that serving two masters.

We don't really like the idea sometimes of slavery, but in essence, a lot of times when the Bible talks about us serving God, it uses the word for slaves.

And when someone was purchased by a master, how many masters did he serve?

I mean, did two different masters buy the same slave?

Oh, it didn't work that way if you purchased a slave and you had exclusive rights to that slave.

God has paid the purchase price for us and He has exclusive rights to us.

We can't share ourselves with God in the world.

We can't say we're gonna serve God and then choose to follow our own pursuits.

It's an exclusive choice when we choose to serve the Lord.

So the question is, are you willing to be exclusively committed to God?

That's choice we make when we choose to serve him?

And something else, Joshua makes clear here in this passage that it's an urgent choice notice.

He says in verse 15, choose for yourselves this day, Joshua didn't just tell the people.

I just want to give you something to think about to go back to your tents and just come back.

Let me know whatever you decide, whichever guide you want to follow.

You know, just whenever just let me know your decision.

Oh, this was a decision that couldn't wait another month for another week or even another day.

Joshua said, you choose yourselves this day.

That day was the day for them to make that decision.

Some choices are that urgent choosing to serve the Lord is one of them.

Sometimes we go to the doctor and the doctor examines us and says, hey, you've got this little issue here.

There are, you know, a few different ways we can treat that.

We can try this or we can try that.

Let let me reschedule you for a month out, go and think about it and come back and just let me know and we'll go from there.

But then there are other days we go in for the checkup and the doctor says you're not going home.

Do you have surgery?

You can?

But it's risky you may not make it back.

It could be a deadly decision if you decide to put off the surgery you need right now before you leave, some doctor visits go that way because some health matters are that urgent, choosing to serve the Lord.

Is that urgent?

You may have been thinking about the choice for a long time and for whatever reason you keep putting it off, the decision is that urgent?

You can say you're putting it off, but really when you're putting it off, you're choosing not to serve the Lord, you're still making a choice and it could be deadly to put off the choice.

We like to think we know what the future may hold for us.

My guess is a lot of you.

If I ask, what, what are you doing tomorrow?

You could tell me you check your calendar, you got it planned out, maybe even for the next week or so, maybe even for the next year.

You know, we make plans ahead and that's ok, but some decisions are too urgent to put off.

We don't know what tomorrow holds for us like when you go in the doctor tells you you're ticking time bomb.

I don't know how much long you've got before your heart fails.

I'd recommend you take care of it.

Now choosing to serve the Lord is that kind of issue?

We don't know how much longer we have.

It's an urgent matter to take care of and we see the urgency, not just in the Old Testament, but even in the New Testament, we think about the Book of Acts serving is that book of conversions.

And in those conversions, we see urgency emphasized to us in the choices to serve the Lord.

One of those is in chapter two on the day of Pentecost, just kind of coming down toward the end of it.

There in verse 41 those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day, about 3000 souls were added to them that day, 3000 souls.

Now that sounds great.

And we rejoice in 3000 souls or being the gospel, being baptized.

But stop and think for just a moment about the logistics of this.

I, I don't know but how many people have been baptized in one day here at KSR?

I don't know, maybe three or four if, if we got here this morning and, and somebody met us from the community there there at the door and said, you know, I've been studying, I need to be baptized.

We'd say great.

What if you showed up?

And 31 people are at the door and they say we all want to be baptized?

That's great.

But how do we, how are we gonna do that?

Have you ever thought about the logistics of how they did that?

Now, what we may do when it comes to some issues today, we, we divide everybody up and say, all right.

Uh last name A through D we'll take care of you right now.

Uh But if you're e through K, you come back tomorrow and then let's see.

Uh L through T well, we'll get you on Wednesday and we, we get that all planned out and we take care of it.

I don't know how they took care of it, but they did because it was that urgent.

They couldn't wait for that 2999th person to be baptized.

If they were ready to choose to serve the Lord, it had to be done that day.

It was that urgent.

And we see that same urgency again throughout the the um the book, we come to chapter nine and we find there where Saul had been fasting for three days, going without food and water.

And when he learned the gospel, when he learned what he needed to do to be saved, he didn't stop and eat.

He didn't take care of his physical body.

He met the need of his spiritual body first.

And once he had been baptized and took care of his soul, then he sat down and can enjoy a meal.

We get hunger pains and we think eating is pretty urgent, but his spiritual pains were more urgent and the spiritual was taken care of.

Even before the physical was, we'll go a few chapters further into acts.

And again, we see the urgency we come down to chapter 16 and there we find the jailer and it says in verse 33 he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and immediately he and all his family were baptized, same hour of the night immediately.

All right.

What's the big deal here?

Well, if you know the hour of the night, you may realize that it's kind of a big deal and you realize the events have already taken place.

I mean, what, what hour is it?

Midnight?

So we get to midnight and what happened at midnight.

Well, I mean, the earthquake happened and, and what else happened?

All the jailer doors were open.

I mean, this jailer could have been at this point.

You know, th this is great what you've just told me, Paul and that's something I really need to do.

But my life is still at stake here.

I need to secure these prisoners and make sure.

And then why don't we just get a good night's rest and I'll be baptized first thing in the morning.

Nothing else mattered at this point.

It didn't matter if it's midnight.

It didn't matter if there are other prisoners who possibly could leave the jailer understood the urgency of taking care of his soul's need.

And when he heard the gospel message the same hour of the night, immediately, he obeyed the gospel choosing to serve the Lord.

Is that urgent?

And we may think we have plenty of time.

But James tells us in James chapter four and verse 14, you do not know what will happen tomorrow.

Maybe you're like the rich fool in Luke 12.

He thought he had many years.

The Lord told him no, you're wrong this night, your soul is going to be required of you.

What if your soul is required this night?

Have you made the right choice?

Are you ready to stand before God in judgment?

Choosing to serve the Lord is an urgent choice and choosing to serve the Lord is also a daily choice.

Again, going back to the same quote there in verse 15, choose for yourselves this day.

Stop and think for a moment again.

What point we are in Israel's history?

When Joshua spoke these words, the book of Joshua is probably one of the most positive books in the whole Bible.

Throughout Joshua, the Israelites had already chosen to serve the Lord.

They're ready to trust in Him as he led them across the Jordan.

He leads them in victory at Jericho and in just one battle after another, they trust in God to deliver them.

And it's such a positive book because they're trusting in the Lord and they're serving the Lord.

So why at the end of the book would Joshua say, well, you still have to choose this day to serve the Lord because he knew the day would come that they would choose to quit serving the Lord every day, we have to make that choice.

What happened with Israel, what we see where when Josh was challenging them their own board, we will serve the Lord will obey him.

And a few verses later, we see kind of a summary of what's going to happen in the future.

Verse 31 Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua and had known all the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel.

And as you cross from the book of Jo Joshua into the book of judges.

Judges, chapter two and verse seven is almost an exact quote from here in chapter 24 in verse 31.

But if you continue to read in judges too, you see that Israel quit serving the Lord beginning of verse 10, when all that generation had been gathered to their cho to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel.

Then the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and serve the bales.

And so what happens is we go from one of the most positive books in the Bible with Joshua to one of the most negative books in judges.

What happened a day came when the people quit choosing to serve the Lord. Mhm.

If it can happen to them, it can happen to us.

And my guess is everyone here tonight, or at least most of us are here tonight because we chose to be here tonight.

We've chosen to serve the Lord and we want to come together today.

We want to praise him.

Will you make the choice to serve the Lord tomorrow?

Were you serving while you're driving to work?

Sometimes that can be a challenge.

What about when you get to work?

What kind of challenges await you there any trials or temptations you may run into maybe Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Every week we run into challenge.

We, we run into decisions that we have to make and whether we verbalize it or not every day, we choose whether or not we're going to serve the Lord.

Satan puts those other gods before us.

He wants us to choose them.

Will we every day we have to make that choice.

A fresh Israel quit making the right choice and they went astray.

And so will we if we quit choosing each and every day to serve the Lord again?

Going to Ezekiel and Ezekiel chapter 18, he said, do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?

Says the Lord God and not that he should turn notice Eric, there's a choice, turn from his ways, his evil ways and live.

But when a righteous man, one who's turned to follow righteousness, he turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to the abominations that the wicked man does.

Shall he live all the righteousness which he has done all those good things in the past.

He's made that choice a lot.

He's chosen to serve the Lord.

He's done a lot of good things.

But those choices of the past don't help him in the present and in the future, all the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty today.

And the sin which he has committed because of them, he shall die.

So again, I ask if you're willing to choose to serve the Lord, are you willing to choose it again tomorrow and the next day and the next day, each and every day of your life to make that choice today, I'm going to choose to serve the Lord in verse 24 of Joshua 24.

And the people said to Joshua, the Lord, our God, we will serve and his voice, we will obey.

I ask you tonight is that your choice?

Will you choose to serve the Lord?

Will you choose to obey his voice?

You can make that choice tonight.

You can be obedient to the Lord.

That may mean you've been kind of iffy and trying to decide whether to begin to live a life of the Lord.

Maybe tonight, you're willing to set aside the gods that have been ensnaring you.

You're willing to repent of your sins and quit living for yourself and start living for the Lord.

You're willing to confess his name and be buried with him in water to have your sins washed away and begin a new life in service to him.

Or maybe you're like most of us here tonight, you've already made that choice, but maybe you're like the Israelites who quit making that choice and it's time to repent and make your life right again before it's eternally too late.

If we can help you in any way tonight, in making the right decision and choosing to serve the Lord, we encourage you to come as we stand and as we sing.